No one will ever know his name

[scheming daemons]

Imagine for a moment that you're a 14 or 15 year old boy on 9/11/01.

The events of that day are something your developing psyche wasn't quite ready for. You grew up in a world where there was one superpower, the U.S.A., and terrorism was something that happened "over there" and you never felt unsafe.

It changed you. You felt a sense of purpose now. You knew what you wanted to do and who you wanted to be.

In a few short years you joined the Navy and signed up to be a member of an elite fighting force called "Navy SEAL Team Six". The training was grueling, but you survived it. In your dreams many times you imagined what you'd do if you came face to face with Osama bin Laden.

After years of training for and performing missions that nobody other than your squad mates would know about, your team is giving the opportunity that every elite fighter in every special unit of the military has dreamed about. They know where Osama bin Laden is and they want you and your team to take him out.

Over a few months, you and your squad train in a mock-up of bin Laden's compound. You go over every detail again and again. Every scenario that can be imagined, every contingency that might need to be taken.

Then the call comes. We're going in.

Years of training have given you the confidence that your team will get the job done, but does your heart race as the helicopter carrying you gets close to the target?

As you and your mates spring into action with surgical precision, you eventually find yourself on the third floor in a bedroom with Osama bin Laden a few feet in front of you. Maybe he's firing back or not (we don't know quite for sure yet), but time slows down for you.

In that split second before you pull the trigger, does your finger quiver? Just a little bit?

You are face to face with the most notorious man the world has known since exactly 66 years earlier. You are about to perform an action that will change history.

You pull the trigger. Twice. Shooting the man in the head.

You have just done something that no American or Russian soldier in WW2 was ever faced with, because Hitler took care of the job for them before they could arrive at his compound.

You've just done what millions of military personnel the past 10 years have dreamed of doing.

.... and the world will never know your name.


Because of safety concerns for the families of you and your SEAL teammates, nobody will ever know ANY of your names.

Except for each other and a VERY few members of the military and government, nobody will ever know that it was YOU that killed Osama bin Laden.

Not even your wife. Not even your parents.

There will be no interviews with Matt Lauer, no hero's welcome. No photo ops on the White House lawn. No magazine covers.

No one will ever know what you did.

Except you.

And the people who have become your "family" over the years.



That 14 or 15 year old boy who was abruptly shaken out of his comfort zone 10 years ago has grown into the man who stood face to face with the man who has become the world's boogeyman and pulled the trigger.


.... and no one will ever know his name.

[howard112211]

1. I'd feel better about being one of the guys who refused obedience when Bush invaded Iraq.

As a side remark: As in team sports, making this all about the guy who finally pulled the trigger does a lot of people disservice.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. +1

[MindPilot]

2. Was talking about this very thing last night

maybe in a couple of decades when the world has changed in ways we can't yet begin to imagine, that guy will write a book, play himself in the movie, or come forward to get his CMO.

I hope I live long enough to toss some confetti at the dude as he rides down the street in a convertible.

[Erose999]

3. In a proper execution, even the shooter doesn't know who fired the lethal shot. Thats why theres a

firing squad. One man is given a live round and the rest are given blanks. So none of the men firing have to live with a guilty conscious that they were the shooter.

I'm telling you this because justice is, in its essence, a communal process. In the act of justice one is informed of the charges, given an opportunity to respond to those charges, and then sentenced and the sentence is carried out.

What we had with Bin Laden was an "extra judicial assassination". Its hardly justice, and I shudder that some people think of it as a noble act. I understand that it was highly likely he could have been taken alive, but they didn't even attempt to take him alive as it was never the goal.

As much as I loathe the Bush/Cheney administration and their way of doing things, at least Saddam Hussein was taken alive and judged for his crimes.

[scheming daemons]

5. Two things: A) Saddam didn't shoot back... and B) Saddam was a head of state

Osama... or at least his couriers... shot at the Navy SEALS.

And Osama wasn't a head of state, and deserved no such respect.

[Erose999]

6. So only heads of state are worth of the "respect" of being tried for their crimes?

While the SEALS may have taken fire, their mission... before they even got on the chopper... was to kill Bin Laden. There wasn't even the pretense of taking him alive or trying him for anything.

If you don't see the wrong in that then I recommend you start an account at Free Republic (if you're not a member there already).

[cherokeeprogressive]

9. I believe only one squad member has the blank. It's called the "conscience round".

There would be a major problem if the single round you describe failed to do lethal damage. Therefore, all but one squad members are issued rifles with live rounds, and no one is told who got the blank.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firing_squad#Blank_cartridge

[Odin2005]

4. That guy will have interesting stuff to tell his grandkids.

[Erose999]

7. I've never heard a vet talk about the actual act of killing someone. Its not a topic most are

comfortable discussing. And I come from a military family.

Your mileage may vary, I suppose.

[Wait Wut]

8. Well said.

SEALs are a different breed. I would never even try to guess what was going through his mind. Your take on his age on 9/11 puts it into a different perspective.

[closeupready]

10. That made me cry. Thanks for posting this.

:hi:

[scheming daemons]

11. kick

[Luminous Animal]

12. You grow up and shoot an unarmed man in the face.

[scheming daemons]

14. An "unarmed" man that is responsible for 10s of thousands of deaths

...forgot that part, eh?

[Luminous Animal]

15. Bill Clinton is responsible for 500,000 dead Iraqi children. GWB is responsible

for hundreds of thousands dead in an illegal war. Obama sends unmanned drones that have killed scores of innocent citizens. Do you believe that they should be assassinated by a foreign elite military force?

[NYC Liberal]

17. And good fucking riddance.

He was resisting and was never going to allow himself to be taken alive.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Luminous Animal]

19. Obama's really not that big.

[Raine]

21. Oh booo hooo hooo poor Osama

:nopity: :puke: good riddance to that murdering piece of shit. :grr: :nuke:

[flvegan]

16. That's probably okay.

In circles like that, names are whispered and stories are told that only certain people and the gods are to bear witness to. WE may never know, but he, she or they will be legend. More than enough for them, I bet. They will inspire.

[Leopolds Ghost]

20. Really? We tried all the top Nazis at Nuremberg. I'm a bit concerned at this lurid speculation

What about the Interahamwe leaders? Where was SEAL Team 6 in the Congo? Well, I guess we'll never know right? After all, many of those guys WERE captured in the jungle, we know not by who... they were not tapped in the jungle.

SEAL Team 6 seems to, if commentators are to be believed, be a secret team that engages in extra-judicial killings and renditions only. So to work your way up to actually get the chance to kill someone like OBL you have to engage in dozens of flat out assassinations and kidnappings of enemy combatants. That's got to affect any spy. But probably not these guys as they train to be life long killers. So Bin Laden changed this kid's life, turning him into the honed and trained life-long killer he is today. I don't personally go in for this sort of lurid speculation. I bet this guy has nightmares in his old age, I mean he spent his entire youth working up to the greatest moment in his life being that he can say he killed a man -- one of America's greatest enemies, and yet we are led to believe there was no man behind the man, no one in Pakistan pulling the strings who is immune from such a fate because we are taught to focus all our ire on the figurehead. We'll never know because the overwhelming doctrine at all levels of military and civilian life for dealing with bin Laden (unlike Mussolini or Hitler) was "kill on sight."