Osama Bin Laden Dead

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by EricH

It's his terror network that we need to be worried about. How are they going to respond? More terror. We don't know when or where--yet.

Food for thought: If you fear the terrorists - then they're winning. That's exactly what they want, hence the name.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Food for thought: If you fear the terrorists - then they're winning. That's exactly what they want, hence the name.

Who said I was afraid?

Might have been better if they'd gotten him alive--would have been easier to deal with the rest of the group--but I'm reasonably confident that the counter-terror units on our side can deal with threats as they crop up. They probably won't tell us for certain yet, but I'd be very surprised if they weren't already on high alert/high detection mode when the announcement was made.

[Mike Betts]

Hey guys... While this subject is interesting, I'm not sure if it would not be more appropriate for some other discussion board...

JMHO,

[JesseK]

I think that's why it's in Chit-Chat Mike. Chit-Chat isn't on the Portal by default (I think), so the majority of people wouldn't even see it.

There are a great many details about his time line of events after he finished college if you poke around the internet. I think the best analogy I've read is that he was the "franchise owner" of Al-Qaeda, and that the organization itself will be difficult to demolish 100%. The organization was more about the Soviet-Afghan war, at least in the beginning.

If you ever read the books on what happened in Afghanistan during the 70's with the Soviets, you may gain some insight into the 'why he was the way he was'. Shantaram is an interesting book about a guy who escaped prison and went to India. On page 700-something he goes into Afghanistan with some group and gets caught in the middle of the Soviet-Afghan war. The imagery the author puts out at that point is pretty lasting, especially about the Afghan who has such pure hatred for the Soviets because he lost everything but his life. Living life the way they did during that war is a totally different paradigm than what I'd ever conceived before I read that book.

Add in some misguided religious ideologies from a college and it's not difficult to see how bin Ladin slipped into a relentless hatred of foreigners. As for how to prevent it -- well, people have willpower and unalienable rights until crimes are committed. Thus the best way is to detect and prevent the crimes; unfortunately before the U.S. put more resources towards that specific goal, it simply wasn't possible to detect a whole lot.

Moving forward, rather than living in fear I think it's best that we remind ourselves that we (the U.S. civilian) are part of the U.S.'s line of defenses in combating terrorism.

[davidthefat]

‎"I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy." MLK Jr.

[jmanela]

Originally Posted by JesseK

I think that's why it's in Chit-Chat Mike. Chit-Chat isn't on the Portal by default (I think), so the majority of people wouldn't even see it.

That actually was my reasoning for putting this thread up in chit-chat. Besides, this is indeed a historic event and I just wanted to see what the robotics community had to offer.

‎"I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy." MLK Jr.

The second paragraph of the thread introduction explains this, however, I like MLK's wording better. Should've used this quote.

[nitneylion452]

To comment on the topic of terrorism and Al Qaeda: yes, Al Qaeda still exists, yes there will still be terrorism. BUT, the killing of bin Laden is an event which will unite Americans in a way we haven't seen in almost a decade. I for one believe that bin Laden got what he deserved.

This event shows that America will not back down. We won't cower in a corner in fear. If you mess with the bull, you get the horns, and America has some pretty big horns.

I'm not saying we should be having a party, just that we should be glad that we finally got the man responsible for the deaths of so many people.