3. Why has the Obama administration said virtually nothing about the other dead?
The versions of this story that I have read all have said that Osama's 18 yr old son was killed and his body was evaced with Osama's. Wasn't he a good enough Muslim to get a holy bath, a shroud and a swim with the sharks?
5. The notion that the Pakistani government, or an important element of it, did not know about the raid strains credulity. Why send in helicopters, across Pakistani airspace and spend 38 minutes on the ground with the very real risk that Pakistani forces might suspect a terrorist attack and come and check it out? A highly possible outcome of such recklessness would be a firefight between SEALs and Pakistani troops or police.
Aside from questions of Paki involvement and/or assistance in the raid that question brings up a major risk 0bummer took and I don't mean to his political well being. Being on the ground for nearly 40 minutes with hundreds of Paki soldiers within a mile or less risked a huge firefight. Losing our men in such a fight would have been terrible.
But forty Navy SEALs with one attack helo and two Chinooks, undoubtedly armed with some of the most terrifying machine guns ever made, could have killed a hundred Paki soldiers, or two or three hundred, in a matter of minutes. Consider the ramifications of that. I'm not saying the op shouldn't have been done. I'm just saying it wasn't just 0bowdown's career on the line and it's also a thought as to how likely there was or was not Paki assistance.
6. Why a helicopter assault and not a missile strike?
That question is easy. There are two good reasons it wasn't a good idea. One; no Osama body to ID so no way to confirm his death. Two; consider the ramifications of a missile strike in the middle of a Paki town with several major Paki army installations on all sides. What would it look like the target was? Especially with no Osama body left. If there was one would the Pakis ID it and say "no problems. they only wanted bin Laden?"
I’m all for raiding nations that harbor terrorists whether they know it or not. The two-faced diplomacy of Pakistan is impossible to fathom without high level clearance.
And, we don’t know if this was a black-ops. There might have been a contingency for all of those heroes to have been “acting rogue” if things went sour, in “defiance of orders”, such as “overzealous interpretation of their mission”. Could have been ready to make an officer the fall guy. Not unheard of during democrat administrations.
Tortured POWs made to confess are easily discredited. Hurts morale, but what does a democrat care?
That contingency could easily have been purged after the fact.
” consider the ramifications of a missile strike in the middle of a Paki town with several major Paki army installations on all sides. What would it look like the target was? Especially with no Osama body left.”
I keep saying that to others. To me this is where the media is very misleading. They talk about this great decision, when weighed in these terms is pretty clear cut.