To be completely honest, I don't blame GWB for not taking him then (if he was ever in their hands at all). Just holding up a longstanding policy of not negotiating with the enemy until one of us is on our knees.

Fair enough.

But I'll ask again -- who would've gotten credit if this occurred during the GWB era?

No one is discounting the work of the troops, but to act like the POTUS (who happens to be Obama) had nothing to do with this is odd.

It's not odd. He's obviously a HATER! And I'm not a big fan of Obama...just calling it like I see it.

FYI - als463 is a woman :)

Obama made the call. Military would have not done it without his say. If Pakistan makes a stink about it happening without their knowledge, it's Obama who will take the fall/blame for it. He would have also taken the blame if the mission had failed and we had American casualties. IMO, he gets the credit, along with Seal Team 6, the CIA lead, and all of their support personnel.

doesn't matter;).

That's fine, but today, many are pretending that getting OBL was our goal all along.

I haven't seen that much. In fact, I've seen some quotes from GWB about finding Bin Laden being put on a back burner around mid-2001.

ETA: Sorry, not 2001, 2002.

But it looks like he said either he wasn't concerned about him or was going to find him - back and forth back and forth. Which is fine, I'm not really concerned about whether GWB really wanted him or not.

I get what you're saying but this man's terror goes back to the 80's, maybe even before that and has impacted the world. I think most people are celebrating the end of his reign of terror, not specifically the loss of human life. When the families of rape and murder victims "celebrate" the death of the rapists and murderers, we understand completely.

Of course it doesn't matter to you. Maybe when you actually fight for your country, then you can go around disrespecting others who have. Get off your high horse, skank.

This is a total non sequiter. Equating the killing of a terrorist to cutting social programs leaves one speechless. One of the main purpose of our Federal Government is for the common defense. Sorry but social programs et al are way down the list.

It is a big bad world out there and there are people who wish to do us harm. They don't care if it is you and your family or me and my family. Had you been on the 89th floor or above in WTC South you would be dead now and they wouldn't care less. The terrorist are only interested in destroying our way of life and us with it. The alternative is to capitulate and bow down to their ideology.

From some of the people who disliked GWB, anyone and anything other than GWB. Chia pets, Chuck Norris, whatever else.

I completely understand where als463 is coming from. She's a military hero (:)). She's giving credit where it is literally due in terms of the source that literally acted. But, as you all have said, before that action comes the literal permission from the President. The military cannot (should not) act without that.

I disagree with AlphaFrog (I think it was AlphaFrog) that this was a common sense move and Forest Gump would have done the same thing. First of all, common sense is a subjective concept and there is knowledge and power required to make such decisions. This decision could have been made and it could have ended horribly and then people wouldn't have been celebrating or looking for who to credit. They'd be looking for who to blame. Honestly, and God forbid, it could still end horribly and then I wonder how the assessment of "common sense" will play then; and who would be blamed if something were to happen after people's celebrations ended.

As with many occupations and tasks in life, everyone has the answer and knows what the hell to do. Until they are in the position to do it and have the weight resting upon them. You really see whether people's actions speak louder than their words.

Yep. This is what I was saying earlier.

Exactly. There would still be celebrations even if he had been taken alive. (Even though it has been stated that taking him captive was never the goal or even an option).

Oh, my. This is truly unfortunate.