Osama bin Laden (OBL)

Operation Osama bin Laden (OBL) was almost floorless during the first stage. The President had to make three decisions: to strike or not to strike; to bomb the site; or to go in and confirm that the intended target was there. It turned out that the on the spot confirmation was the correct one, and the loss of life was kept to a minimum; the unexpected bonus was the amount of information the Seals were able to extract from the site. The general consensus was that OBL had become nothing more than a figurehead in the organization; this concept turned out to be incorrect. From an operational standpoint the only thing that went wrong was the loss of a helicopter, but the Seals had that aspect covered with an alternate plan, and attempted to destroy the craft so nothing could be derived from the high-tech aspects of the craft. The fact that there was a possibility that a portion of the downed chopper may reveal information that we would prefer to keep out of enemy hands was the only aspect that one might suggest might mar the military’s portion of this operation.

There were a number of directions that the operation could have taken from this point; it is these alternative courses that will be explored here. We could have remained silent about the operation. One can hear the cries of outrage at this suggestion, but one must remember that we are at war and there are countless reasons for not informing the public of this accomplishment, especially since our evaluation of bin Laden’s position within the organization was so far off the mark, given the amount of information that was collected from the site and the location of the site. The Nation has gone ten years without any satisfaction of getting this man, It would not have been a big thing to hold back the accomplishment for a month or two, to give our intelligence agencies the opportunity to glean information that would enable them to get in place to act upon any actions that the enemy might take as a result of finding out that their leader had been taken out. We still have our troops in harm’s way and we should do everything we can to minimize the threat to their safety.

This idea that we a right to all information is getting out of hand; we need to stop being concerned with the politicians’ and the media’s need to know, especially if that need to know hampers the ability to shorten the war we are engaged in. If we operated this way during World War II, we would have lost the war. Our nation is giving the enemy a host of information as to how we are thinking and what we are looking at. The media is continually bringing in people that are analyzing everything that is coming out, and some of this information can be useful to the enemy. We, as a nation, should learn to curtail our thirst for information until it no longer has the potential of doing harm to our troops and the Nation. This war is real, it’s not a television show; every effort should be made to maximize any advantage we have in fighting this war, and at the same time giving the enemy as little information as possible.

Think back to the actions that have transpired during the past two weeks, it is highly probable that many of them will negate the positive aspects of this endeavor, it is clear that we need to reevaluate our behavior as it relates to the war we are in. One can only hope that we as a nation will become more thoughtful about the actions we take. We should be proud of those that made this mission a success, and pleased with the knowledge that one of our prime enemies has been removed for the scene, but we should also be mindful of the fact that this war is far from over and our troops are still on the frontlines.

Charlie Allo