Osama Bin Laden killed.

[AaronShadows]

w00t, the bast@rd is finally dead! He was killed in Pakistan near a town called

From Wikipedia:

On May 1, 2011, in Washington, D.C. (May 2, Pakistan Standard Time), U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden was killed by "a massive erection" acting under Obama's direct orders, in a covert operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, about 50 km (31 mi) north of Islamabad. He was believed to be hiding near the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas with fellow al-Qaeda leaders, however, he was discovered hiding in a million-dollar three-story mansion in Abbottabad. The Telegraph identified the compound's specific location on Google maps. The compound is 800 feet (250 meters) from a Pakistani police station, and a few hundred yards from the Pakistan Military Academy.
According to U.S. officials, a team of 20–25 US Navy SEALs under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command and working with the CIA stormed bin Laden's compound in two helicopters. Bin Laden and those with him were killed during a firefight, in which U.S. forces did not experience any injuries or casualties. In his broadcast announcement President Obama said that U.S. forces "took care to avoid civilian casualties." Three men and a woman were killed along with Bin Laden, the woman being killed when she was “used as a shield by a male combatant”. According to one U.S. official the attack was carried out without the knowledge or consent of Pakistani authorities. In contrast, agents of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) said it was a joint operation.
DNA from bin Laden's body, compared with DNA samples on record from his dead sister, confirmed bin Laden's identity. The body was recovered by the U.S. military, and was in its custody until his body was buried in the North Arabian Sea from the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) according to Islamic traditions. One U.S. official stated that "finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult."
The U.S. State Department issued a "Worldwide caution" for Americans following Bin Laden's death, and U.S diplomatic facilities everywhere were placed on high alert, a senior U.S official said. Crowds gathered outside the White House and in New York City's Times Square to celebrate Bin Laden's death. In Pakistan, some people were shocked at those reports that said that the mission was not authorized by Pakistan.

"a massive erection"

"a massive erection"

XDDDD

I have to wonder if that bit was vandalism on the Wikipedia page, but the rest of the entry looks valid, so.

Although, there's plenty of controversy going around. And little doubt that there'll be some kind of payback in store. But who cares? The most wanted man in the world, responsible for thousands of deaths, is finally out of our hair.

I'm both surprised and impressed that his body was treated with dignity, and disposed of according his religion; I was quite frankly expecting them to jam his head on a pike and wave it at anyone else who felt like making trouble. >_>;

[noirmali]

Everyone needs to stop celebrating this.

I swear anyone who is celebrating this is just asking for another 9/11.

It's not over yet.

It's far from over.

Don't **** them off.

[Miranda_]

I swear, when I first heard this, I thought it was an elaborate joke. Now I find it true... well, Osama isn't every single terrorist in the world, you know. Killing him off won't make an iota of difference. If anyone needs killing off, it's Mad Dog Gaddaffi.

[AaronShadows]

Aye, but now the Taliban and Al Qaeda find themselves leaderless. There is no doubt Osama knew his stuff; how else would he have been so successful in his various exploits throughout his life, and survived until now? Anybody else elected to the seat is unlikely to be able to do as well as him, which is all good.

They already tried to kill Gaddafi. Via air strike, I believe, but it failed as he wasn't there at the time.

[noirmali]

They'll still be pretty angry. How would you feel if Obama was assassinated today instead of him, and then people halfway across the world were rejoicing at the successful assassination? : x

It's the same, except we'd probably be less frowned upon to start a war because America's in the P5 of the UN and therefore can pretty much pull strings really easily. : \

[AaronShadows]

I don't live in the US, but I'd be irritated because Obama is at least doing a better job than Bush. I think. However, Obama is not trying to impose a twisted version of a main world religion's tenets on innocent people and killing anybody who gets in his way. X_X

There will almost certainly be retaliation, but I doubt they'll be too vicious with Osama out of the picture. However, there is an off-chance he might have been teaching others his tricks and strategies, and they might be just as well able as him to plan and execute terrorist attacks.

[noirmali]

Yes, Obama is not trying to "impose a twisted version of a main world's religion's tenets on innocent people and killing anybody who gets in his way", but that statement seems a bit culturally biased. If you live with Osama ( or in some areas of the Middle East in general ) and you grew up with a religion-based life, that is what they deem normal. They find us doing the same wrong things that they do. When you think about it, we do, but we manipulate it so it sounds okay.

It's okay to wear a Bikini?

Well, it's not there.

And there, it's okay to wear head-scarves.

We're trying to "change" that - and we always go around "changing" things - people don't want that change - they want to keep it they way it was. And they find us as threatening; therefore, they want to kill us. : |


Relatiation will happen, retaliation will happen

World War I started because of an assassination

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

I have to agree with noirmali that people should stop celebrating, but moreso because I think its completely inappropriate to celebrate someone's death, enemy or otherwise. We think of him as some inhuman *******, but we have to remember that he genuinely believed what he was fighting for (predominantly trying to keep out the influence of America, an issue that many countries have been dealing with, not just the Middle East). He has family and friends, shocking I know, who are going to mourn him. Many people thought of him as a hero and that's not exactly surprising considering the reports that have come out of this war with attempts to convert the people and completely inhumane acts.

Osama is one person. He's not the end of this "war", there are many different terrorist sects and a large part of why they do so well is because of their ability to work as a cohesive group. Someone else will simply replace him and use his death as a rallying cry. I don't envy anyone (soldier or civilian) over there, the fighting is bound to get a lot worse over the next couple of weeks.

Also, Osama is the least of our worries. What about Gaddafi? The human rights violations in China? Iran playing with nuclear materials or North Korea's successes with them already? Osama wasn't about to hijack more planes anytime soon, he's basically been playing hide and seek and making videos, not really doing much.

[AaronShadows]

I agree it is tasteless to celebrate another person's death, but still. His actions were inexcusable, and he did bring it upon himself. As I said above; I'm happy his body was dealt with respectfully. I agree that he believed he was doing the right thing, but the fact of the matter is that Islamic extremism is, well, bad. Islam is a rather interpretable religion, and Osama saw civilians, including women and children, as legitimate targets. I suppose he deserves a certain degree of respect.

On the subject of Gaddafi, did you know that his youngest son and three of his grandsons were killed in a NATO air strike? That's not right, either. I'm sure none of them had any choice in Gaddafi's actions, but they were killed all the same. Although, reportedly, his youngest son replaced Gaddafi's defense minister after he stepped down because he didn't wish to shoot civilians. There's no way I can varify my information, as it's still utter confusion over in Libya and there's no real way to be sure.

@Noirmali: Aye, but Obama doesn't use terrorism to accomplish his goals, does he? I don't see him threatening to bomb anything or anyone because some bill didn't get passed. Understand that I'm not completely biased- I live in Ireland, which is a neutral country. I have no reason to take sides with either Obama or Osama, but I merely state my opinion on matters.

And, speaking of China, do you think anything will ever be done about their actions? To me, it seems unlikely, as China has such an important economical role, and is such a powerful nation in its own right. Probably the best way to bring about change there would be to sow dissent from the inside out, because even the most powerful tyrants can't function if nobody listens to them. However, it seems unlikely anybody would try something so unorthodox. China has the highest execution rate of anywhere, pretty much, save perhaps Iran, so it seems as though it would be difficult to provoke a rebellion. Even if it did work, it would only lead to a bloody situation similar to Libya.

[Elanorea]

When I heard the news, my reaction was "meh" pretty much. True, he was the leader of al-Qaeda, and it was a symbolic victory and so on, but in the end he was just one guy. And the death of one person isn't going to put an end to terrorism; it might just encourage his followers to take revenge for him.