Son of a bitch. One of these days I'll start reading general again.
#4
Dave
Or hit "what's new" and see if it pops up.
Absolutely no worries, dude. Everyone should make this thread in every sub-board. It's that huge.
#5
Necronic
Well, I'll discuss it here from a purely political perspective. I'm not sure how significant this really is. Clearly it won't end the problems in the middle east, those are really just getting started.
So what effect will it have on the global war on terrorism? Obviously it has a psychological impact in America. It would have been far more significant a 5 years ago obviously, but even today there is still an effect. For the enemy, however, I doubt this will have any deterring psychological effects, in fact it may be spun as a positive. They can write it down as a glorious martydom against the evil western powers. The statement that members of his family were killed as well may only increase that. This may be used as a rallying cry for bringing in further recruits and pushing them to live up to the "example" he made for them.
Edit: Although possibly I misread the above. Maybe his continued survival facing off against the entire western world emboldened the terrorist leaders. Maybe he was a figurehead of their potential to withstand our overwhelming might. /edit
Strategically I don't know what effects it will have, if any. This is not a heirarchical classical military structure where you can severely damage it by cutting off its head (or as the case may be here figurehead). Their military philosophy is that of mobility and decentralization. They are an army of individuals if you will. We may have just killed one of the most important individuals but that just leaves a million others.
Nonetheless, this is obviously a good thing. I just don't believe this will have any significant effect other than a temporary reprieve from the war weariness that we have been feeling for the last 4 years.
