Can you make it quick? We've got other shiat on the table you know.

Gosling: It's at this point you almost appreciate how hard it is to land a bomb on him and the fact that this hasn't been wrapped up yet. I mean... guy hasn't survived Reagan AND Bush 43 for nothing.

To be honest, that's because the guy knows how to push *JUST* hard enough without pushing too far, and he knows when to make nice. I imagine his siding with the US against Al Qaeda was largely because he knew he'd be on the short list, right after Afghanistan and Iraq, and he knew that wouldn't be healthy for him in the long run.

Still, it's harder to pin down the exact location of a specific individual, at least in part because by the time an organization gets the information and is able to act upon it, it's likely that the individual has moved to a different location already (presuming that they know they are a target, of course).

farkingatwork: Are they really this stupid?

"We will die for (our cause)" is more accurate than for oil, dumbfarks. Way to make this sound like it's 100% about oil.

I guess more accurately they're willing to die to hold on to vast wealth and power, oil is just a means to that end.

/potato, potaato
//nobody is under an illusions that Ghadaffi's only ideology in this fight is that he likes being king and wants to keep the job

Gadaffi will win the war come August 2nd.

iheartscotch: I'm reminded of that scene from Inglorious Bastards:

"Hey donny; we got a nazi that wants to die for country. Oblige him."

\ bear jew ftw


TEDDY FARKIN' WILLIAMS KNOCKS IT OUTTA THE PARK!

/great scene

Lt. Cheese Weasel: [www.freeinfosociety.com image 300x440]

'No dumb bastard ever won a a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his'

Came for this - Leaving satisified . . .

YouPeopleAreCrazy: dittybopper: To be honest, that's because the guy knows how to push *JUST* hard enough without pushing too far, and he knows when to make nice.

I think having NATO airstrikes on your country/house is over the 'too far' line.

Not really. We bombed the place in 1986, and left. He knew we were coming (he was informed by an Italian politician of the impending strike before US planes made it into Libyan airspace), and he moved*.

That's the kind of balance he struck during most of his career: A pinky-toe over the line, enough to be a pain in the ass, but not enough to provoke a full-blown invasion.

*This, btw, is why lately we haven't been informing allies about our moves beforehand. Even a friendly country might have people hostile to you in the government. So while Pakistan on the whole might have been on our side, we know there are elements in the Pakistani government that side with Al Qaeda, so we didn't risk informing them and giving ObL a chance to escape. All it would have taken is 5 minutes warning for him to disappear.

YouPeopleAreCrazy: unicron702: Says in the one cave they found a burnt to a crisp 6'5" corpse hooked to a dialysis machine. He kind of made his mind up about Osama right then and there. I know he was special forces, but he did exaggerate.

Pulling your leg in more ways than one.

Heh, I had a roommate in the Army who was an ex-SF medic. He used to *LOVE* playing on the ignorance and awe that most people have about Special Forces. Like telling people he was in a 'ghost team', without explaining that it was actually where they stuck extra personnel that weren't assigned to an actual team as sort of an SF temp agency to fill in for teams that might have a person on medical, leave when called to action, etc. People would fill in the blanks, and assume it was some kind of sooper-seekrit force-within-a-force that did all the dirty jobs, and he didn't say anything to dissuade them.

You want to know the funniest thing: SF guys don't look like Rambo. SF guys are wiry and scrawny. I've seen Rangers with a Ramboesque physique, but the SF guys are all skinny. For them, it's about endurance, not raw strength, so they look like marathon runners, not weight lifters. Rambo couldn't have actually been SF. He wouldn't have been able to pass the qualification course to get in.