Assassinate Osama

As far as we know Osama bin Laden is hiding out in a cave on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, or at least that's what we believe. But, if we believe it, it probably isn't true. He probably was spirited away in the guise of a woman in a full chador to a pleasant exile in an affluent Gulf State, where he shaved off his beard and is posing as a businessman living in a discrete luxury hotel probably in Dubai, where he can have electronic contact with his disciples around the world, without raising attention.

Now let's say that he is tracked on one of his outings by a foreign intelligence service, whose suspicions are aroused by his intermittent contact with certain unsavoury Islamic characters. Further information from a paid informant confirms his identity. An emergency Security Committee meeting is held at the White House and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is in favor of blasting the hotel with a cruise missile, but the President says "hold on, that might cause civilian casualties." "So what," says the military expert, "we're at war with him and his followers, we have lost hundreds of men searching for him, and we can't let him get away again as we did last time we had him." "No," says the President, "I'm in charge, and I have decided that it is immoral and illegal to blast a whole hotel just to kill one enemy, even if it is their leader."

"I have a suggestion," pipes in the Head of the CIA, "why not send in a team to positively identify him and then assassinate him and that way we'll avoid all the civilian casualties." "I don't know," says the Head of the JCS, "they might be detected, or they might fail to kill him and he'll get away again." "Are you forgetting that we must give him the benefit of the doubt, he might not be Osama at all, it might be a case of mistaken identity. In that case we must err on the side of caution, and so as President I have decided that we should send in a team. But, we must give our team cover, so that they won't be suspected." "I know," says the Head of the CIA, "let's contact the Israelis, they know how to deal with fake passports."

All right now, hands up all Americans who on reading the second paragraph immediately said "No, don't do that, blast them to hell!" Well, I suppose, ironically that there is some similarity between Israel under Netanyahu and the US under Obama after all. Israel clearly took great risks in sending in a large team to kill the arch terrorist al-Mabhouh rather than sending in a drone and blasting the hotel. Noone gives them credit for that! Wouldn't the US (and the Europeans) be glad if they could do the same thing to Osama.