Althouse: Osama bin Laden "crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again, Bap! Same place... He was dead.... His tongue was out."

February 11, 2013

Osama bin Laden "crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again, Bap! Same place... He was dead.... His tongue was out."

"I watched him take his last breaths, just a reflex breath. And I remember as I watched him breathe out the last part of air, I thought: Is this the best thing I've ever done, or the worst thing I've ever done? This is real and that's him. Holy sh**. His forehead was gruesome. It was split open in the shape of a V. I could see his brains spilling out over his face. The American public doesn't want to know what that looks like."

ADDED: Here's the long Esquire article.

56 comments:

SteveR said...: Justice delayed is justice denied; 2/11/13, 8:52 AM
MadisonMan said...: I see no reason to view pictures of the dead bin Laden. Good riddance, and let's move forward.

It's gratifying (not sure if that's the right word) that the shooter knows the enormity of his action.; 2/11/13, 8:53 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: A real man would have used piano wire.; 2/11/13, 8:59 AM
Anonymous said...: Blogger Mitchell the Bat said...

A real man would have used piano wire.

2/11/13, 8:59 AM
______________________________

...or a blowtorch; 2/11/13, 9:00 AM
jr565 said...: War is ugly even if justified, and even if the person being killed has it coming.; 2/11/13, 9:03 AM
Palladian said...: War is ugly even if justified, and even if the person being killed has it coming.

Exactly, and this wasn't even an act of "war", per se, this was an execution.

Whether "justified" or not, the morality and reality of the act should be difficult for any reasonable person.; 2/11/13, 9:11 AM
sakredkow said...: Sorry the 3 yo child had to see it. Sorry we don't seem able to get Zawahari. Well, there's still hope.; 2/11/13, 9:11 AM
AllenS said...: It's a simple fact of life, some people need a good killin'.; 2/11/13, 9:12 AM
JPS said...: I smell bullshit.

"Journalist Phil Bronstein...spent a year with The Shooter, earning his trust and carefully constructing his story for the 15,000-word piece for Esquire."

I think it's likelier that someone who wished he were The Shooter spent a year earning Bronstein's trust.

I don't rule out that a member of a classified direct action unit is going to spend a year getting to know a journalist and spilling his guts, but most of these guys wouldn't. Generally the kind of guy who would, doesn't get to be point man on a mission like this.; 2/11/13, 9:20 AM
Tibore said...: Waitaminute...

"Because the U.S. government have given him nothing - no pension, no health care, no protection for his wife, children or him..."

No benefits whatsoever? I understand the pension thing because a quick Google search shows that you must serve 20 years before you can claim full retirement benefits from the Navy. But health care is a whole other issue; I thought that just being a service member entitled them to at least some basic level of that.

Am I mistaken? I'm not military at all, so I could easily be, but I did think that there was some post-seperation benefits available. Does anyone know?; 2/11/13, 9:21 AM
Unknown said...: I don't need to hear the gory details, but it's a good thing Osama is gone. Others will replace him.; 2/11/13, 9:29 AM
JPS said...: OK, maybe I was hasty in calling BS. Bronstein may well have spoken to this fellow at length:

http://tinyurl.com/4xzs422

Tibore: Tricare has the Transitional Assistance Management Program, but it's plausible that this guy didn't meet any of the qualifications.

My personal fun with TAMP: I had planned on using it because I did meet one of the conditions. My transition to the Selected Reserve, which I checked on and asked about frequently as the big day arrived, hit a snag at the last minute. It didn't come through on the day after I left active duty, so we were ineligible for TAMP, and briefly uninsured. I hadn't planned on needing anything else, and was assured everything was on track, right up until it wasn't.; 2/11/13, 9:29 AM
Hagar said...: If they were going to kill him, I wish they had done it with a missile attack and just razed the compound; bin Laden, wives, kids, bystanders, and all.

The only reason for going in like this should have been to bring him out alive.

Politicallly, the best thing they could have done was to publicize pictures of the crumbling compound the Pakistani CIS had allotted him with descriptions of the cook going out once a week to buy a goat to butcher, etc.
Getting inside and "liberating" that video of the "dirty old man" sitting in his dingy bedroom watching porn on his 13" old Sharps TV, would have been wonderful, though probably not possible.; 2/11/13, 9:43 AM
edutcher said...: You can run, but you'll only die tired.

Unlike the Moslems, we don't need to see dance around as his head is mounted on a pole.

wyo sis said...

I don't need to hear the gory details, but it's a good thing Osama is gone. Others will replace him.

No, he was like Sean Penn. A rich wannabe with more money than brains.

Although phx is moving on to the next Lefty snark (We can't find Saddam/bin Laden/Ayman), he proves he is a stopped clock.

The guy we want is Zawahiri. He's their Carlos The Jackal, the brains in the operation.

Him I want dead.; 2/11/13, 9:54 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/11/13, 10:04 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: American public doesn't want to know what that looks like."

Maybe we should.....know what death and destruction looks like.

Perhaps, then they wouldn't be so cavalier about Obama using drone strikes to kill people as if they were targets in some video game.

And I agree wholeheartedly with Lem and with the Mean Green Mother from Outer Space..... some people deserve to die. We just need to understand the gravity, finality, reality and horror that can be involved in killing.

As a society, we have been so coddled and protected of ever having to experience or face death and destruction that we have lost all perspective.; 2/11/13, 10:06 AM
Wince said...: Because the U.S. government have given him nothing - no pension, no health care, no protection for his wife, children or him - he has had to teach them what to do if an attack should be made on their home.

Sounds like a good spokesman for gun rights and how mistaken it is to depend upon the government exclusively for your protection.

Especially after the NRA was accused of conflating the level of risk faced by the Obama daughters and every other schoolchild in the country when their advocacy ad pointed to the level of armed security provided the Obama girls at at their school.; 2/11/13, 10:14 AM
Tibore said...: "Tibore: Tricare has the Transitional Assistance Management Program, but it's plausible that this guy didn't meet any of the qualifications."

Wow. Really? Man, I'm in shock.

Don't get me wrong; I don't doubt you. It's just that I'd be surprised that it's even possible for a 16 year veteran to not qualify for any benefits. That would be shocking indeed, but I admit, I'm not in the military, so I don't know what's involved.; 2/11/13, 10:20 AM
G Joubert said...: No pension/benefits. Why'd he get out at 16 years? That's the question.; 2/11/13, 10:24 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: Dust Bunny Queen said...

As a society, we have been so coddled and protected of ever having to experience or face death and destruction that we have lost all perspective.

So, I'm guessing that you're a glass-is-half-empty kind of person.; 2/11/13, 10:24 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: So, I'm guessing that you're a glass-is-half-empty kind of person.

I prefer to think that we should have picked out the correct sized glass in the first place.; 2/11/13, 10:31 AM
bagoh20 said...: I'm surprised nobody said: "It's too late. What difference now does it make if he's dead or not?"; 2/11/13, 10:37 AM
Sorun said...: No pension/benefits.

Admin people in the military will try and screw you out of benefits, but everyone should know it takes 20 years to collect a pension.

I think the apparent complaining about benefits is added sensationalism introduced by the "reporter."; 2/11/13, 10:41 AM
Herb said...: Nobody smart enough to be a SEAL Team member would not be aware that it takes twenty years active service to "earn" a normal retirement and that you do not get benefits if you leave the service earlier. There is an exception of course for those who have a service connected injury or disability.; 2/11/13, 10:53 AM
Aaron said...: "Sorry we don't seem able to get Zawahari."

THIS.

And his brother is active in the MB in Egypt. I bet that phone is tapped six ways to Sunday.; 2/11/13, 10:53 AM
Rusty said...: LarsPorsena said...
Blogger Mitchell the Bat said...

A real man would have used piano wire.

2/11/13, 8:59 AM
______________________________

...or a blowtorch

A real man would have used a community organizer.; 2/11/13, 11:13 AM
Rabel said...: "The American public doesn't want to know what that looks like."
- The Shooter.

"Yes they do."
- Quentin Tarantino; 2/11/13, 11:16 AM
Anonymous said...: He deserved to die. I'm glad he's dead.; 2/11/13, 11:20 AM
Synova said...: Someone I follow on Google+ (a fellow from Kenya) posted a thing about an Osama Bin Laden foundation award given out to a bunch of kids.

Yes, he deserved to die. But in a decade the disgusting Che shirts and posters on college campuses will be replaced by disgusting Osama shirts. He's already something of a hero and now a martyr to boot.

Yes, I'm glad he's dead, but stupid liberal children will make a hero of him in years to come. People who can make a hero of Che can make a hero of anyone.; 2/11/13, 11:25 AM
sakredkow said...: Yes, I'm glad he's dead, but stupid liberal children will make a hero of him in years to come.

Those liberals. SMH. Some of their future crimes are even worse than their past ones.; 2/11/13, 11:31 AM
Geoff Matthews said...: So, if an vengeful Islamist wanted to exact revenge, all (s)he had to do is track down Phil Bronstein, torture the shooter's name out of him, and then publish that information.; 2/11/13, 11:40 AM
Synova said...: Yeah, I know phx. I almost didn't write that. But how would you typify the "Che is cool" kids? If you have a better term, I'll happily use it.; 2/11/13, 11:44 AM
sakredkow said...: Fair enough Synova. Retracted like a mensch.

I'm not an apologist for Che t-shirts or those who wear them.; 2/11/13, 11:59 AM
Scott M said...: I've always been a bit perplexed about the high school/college kids wearing Che, especially black high school and college kids.; 2/11/13, 12:00 PM
Cedarford said...: edutcher - The guy we want is Zawahiri. He's their Carlos The Jackal, the brains in the operation.

That is dumb.
This is an ideological, global Islamist movement.
There is no "Mr. Big, the CEO of all Terror, which, if James Bond takes him out - Gives us Harmony and World Peace."

That drivel is best left to Hollywood movies.

Dumb as saying if the anarchists had taken out JP Morgan, as they tried - then that would have crippled capitalism because "The Brains Behind It!" would be gone.

The West has been fighting Jihad for 1200 years.
There are always "independent thinkers" like Kahlid Shekh Mohammed that will come up with great ideas to kill infidels that are supported or rejected.
Just as the Pentagon has hundreds of similar idea pushers that have great ways to cripple or hinder Soviets, Islamists or whatever other hostile ideology du jour we face...; 2/11/13, 12:09 PM
Cedarford said...: Nothing like taking a newbie unaware of the power of a centerfire rifle used in the military or in big game hunting, out, and shoot a watermelon.

Bin Laden, or a kid killed by psycho boy in Newton - a .223 head shot is as gory as it gets.
And a close range 30 '06 or Russian 7.62 X 54 head shot is worse. .
It isn't Hollywood, with a neat hole to the head. It's physics - and shattering, hydrostatic overpressure means lots of corpse multilation & splatter. But a rifle shot to the torso does leave a "presentable corpse" - sinews and muscle and connective tissue do tend to stop torsos from looking like what happens to a head or a watermelon.

Bombs, missiles and other AF ordnance is worse...; 2/11/13, 12:18 PM
Cedarford said...: edutcher - The guy we want is Zawahiri. He's their Carlos The Jackal, the brains in the operation.

That is dumb.
This is an ideological, global Islamist movement.
There is no "Mr. Big, the CEO of all Terror, which, if James Bond takes him out - Gives us Harmony and World Peace."

That drivel is best left to Hollywood movies.

Dumb as saying if the anarchists had taken out JP Morgan, as they tried - then that would have crippled capitalism because "The Brains Behind It!" would be gone.

The West has been fighting Jihad for 1200 years.
There are always "independent thinkers" like Kahlid Shekh Mohammed that will come up with great ideas to kill infidels that are supported or rejected.
Just as the Pentagon has hundreds of similar idea pushers that have great ways to cripple or hinder Soviets, Islamists or whatever other hostile ideology du jour we face...; 2/11/13, 12:18 PM
Anonymous said...: I think Che has a bit of glamour and coolness about him.; 2/11/13, 12:23 PM
edutcher said...: Cedarford said...

The guy we want is Zawahiri. He's their Carlos The Jackal, the brains in the operation.

That is dumb.
This is an ideological, global Islamist movement.
There is no "Mr. Big, the CEO of all Terror, which, if James Bond takes him out - Gives us Harmony and World Peace."

Babble on.

You think Al Qaeda is an ideological, global Islamist movement?

If so, then Zawahiri is their Blofeld.

I don't think so. Al Qaeda is a small, but effective, group of crazies who engage in terrorism. Ayman Al-Zawahiri is the brains in the organization by pretty much everybody's consent.

Nail him and you cripple its effectiveness.

But I realize there are other sects of Islam and other terror groups, like Hezbullah, which will also have to be dealt with.

If I said there was a Mr Big of Terror, I wish you'd point out where I said it, because, otherwise, you're just jumping to conclusions.; 2/11/13, 12:31 PM
Rabel said...: "So, if an vengeful Islamist wanted to exact revenge, all (s)he had to do is track down Phil Bronstein, torture the shooter's name out of him, and then publish that information."

I hear he has an unnatural fear of green dragons and blond cougars.; 2/11/13, 12:43 PM
David said...: So we're being sheltered from gory photos of dead people.

Oh thank you how would we ever recover from the shock.; 2/11/13, 1:19 PM
Leland said...: Bin Laden, or a kid killed by psycho boy in Newton - a .223 head shot is as gory as it gets.

I thought they used M4s on the raid, so 7.62. Based on the book, "No Easy Day" the first shot was essentially through the door.; 2/11/13, 1:43 PM
Scott M said...: I thought they used M4s on the raid, so 7.62.

The M4 Carbine fires a NATO-milspec 5.56x45mm round. I have no doubt that some gunsmith could build an M4 that shoots 7.56, but that would not be standard. I have no idea what ST6 uses as standard, but Army and AF Spec Ops use the M4 firing the above-mentioned NATO round.; 2/11/13, 2:15 PM
Scott M said...: Sorry...typo...7.62; 2/11/13, 2:16 PM
Aridog said...: Tibore asked...

But health care is a whole other issue; I thought that just being a service member entitled them to at least some basic level of that.

Nope. That was what was promised to individuals in the 1960's and early 70's, but it has "deteriorated" to to speak.

Service members today, separated short of retirement, are eligible for
VA Health Benefits in accordance with the included schedule, priority 1 thru 8, here. Priority determines the level of coverage and a 60% or higher service connected disability is required for Category 1.

As far as I know families are not included. Some one please correct me if I am wrong on that family b it.; 2/11/13, 2:40 PM
sakredkow said...: The M4 Carbine fires a NATO-milspec 5.56x45mm round. I have no doubt that some gunsmith could build an M4 that shoots 7.56, but that would not be standard. I have no idea what ST6 uses as standard, but Army and AF Spec Ops use the M4 firing the above-mentioned NATO round.

Nerd. How you doing ScottM?; 2/11/13, 2:45 PM
cryptical said...: IIRC HK 416 which is a piston gun vs gas.

The thing that stuck out to me, and I'm admittedly about as low speed and high drag as they come, is the mention that they load 30 rounds into a 30 round mag. Conventional wisdom (including directly from a USMC Gunny about 30 years ago) is to only load 28, because a full mag is more likely to jam.; 2/11/13, 3:35 PM
Scott M said...: Nerd

On other topics, yes. On this one, nope. I and most of my extended family are military going back generations. While I've only fired 7.62 a few times, I've fired more 5.56 than I can remember.

In answer to your question, just a tad bit harried.

Conventional wisdom (including directly from a USMC Gunny about 30 years ago) is to only load 28, because a full mag is more likely to jam.

I remember this always being said. While I've never once had a 30 round mag jam on me, I rarely load more than 28 through sheer superstitious fear :); 2/11/13, 4:08 PM
Jose_K said...: Justice delayed is justice denied... revenge is a dish better served cold; 2/11/13, 4:26 PM
Jose_K said...: the morality and reality of the act should be difficult for any reasonable person
better one man to perish than a whole people; 2/11/13, 4:27 PM
Dante said...: Really, do you think OBL was a muslim? A real Muslim?

I think he wanted to reshape the middle east. Just like Achmidenijad. Just like Saddam Hussein.

If it weren't for the oil, there would be no jihad. Unfortunately, oil is the lifeblood of modern civilization, and it's necessary.

I say develop our own massive oil reserves, get out of the middle east, and let the Chinese have it.

But, No. We need to have battery powered cars (still waiting for Al Gore's 10 years and an all electric fleet, the tard). We need oil, methane is not useable in massive scale due to the difficulty to contain it.

So until the Greens let go and the US develops its massive shale oil reserves, we are going to be in this situation of having to kill people so a new superpower isn't created that controls the world economically.; 2/11/13, 5:47 PM
ampersand said...: There are pictures of a dead JFK in the autopsy room all over the internet. They are pretty gruesome too. AFAIAC no pictures,no dead Bin Ladin.; 2/11/13, 8:02 PM
Synova said...: "I think Che has a bit of glamour and coolness about him."

The only thing glamorous about Che is that Americans assassinated him.

As far as we know, at least Bin Laden wasn't a sadist who liked personally shooting prisoners in the head.; 2/11/13, 8:41 PM
Clyde said...: I don't give a damn about what happened to Bin Laden, or any other Muslim terrorist. The only good one is a dead one. I think he died far to easily, though. If it was up to me, he would have been taken up several hundred feet above the ocean in a chopper, set on fire and then pushed out the door to plummet to his death. And no, I'm not kidding. I thought about it a lot after 9/11, and that would have been justice as far as I was concerned. But a gunshot to the head was fine with me as well, just as long as he died. Good riddance and may he burn in hell.; 2/12/13, 7:04 AM
AllenS said...: Pictures of certain dead people that you'll never see, are those that were aborted.; 2/12/13, 7:42 AM
AllenS said...: Right here in the US of A.; 2/12/13, 7:42 AM