There are some things which don’t add up, but at this stage, that makes a lot of sense. \u00a0Calling it \u00a0conspiracy at this stage is crazy talk. \u00a0Here’s why:<\/p>\n
People who have not dealt with what we might call an “operational” tempo and style of events, or those who have forgotten what that is like, will tend to find fault with minor discrepancies, and to lose their composure when large discrepancies are found. Some of the discrepancies are reports of the method and time of bin Laden’s demise, a photograph purportedly of bin Laden which is hardly dispositive, and an incredibly stupid decision to dump his body at sea*. At least that’s the story today.<\/p>\n
No matter how queer this all looks, consider the alternative: a conspiracy to fabricate this story or even major elements of it would require either the duping or complicity of many senior military folks, and some who might not be so senior but whose moral cores and mental discipline resemble their physical fricking awesomeness. That’s right; you would have to fool or subvert a bunch of colonels and Navy captains and their staffs and a handful of Navy SEALs.<\/p>\n
[pullquote]No doubt a certain amount of bureaucratic ass-covering and plain old incompetence has been brought to bear by the United States government[\/pullquote]Given the impossibility of the alternative, I am inclined to place my faith in the still-developing official account of events. Much of the confusion now may be ascribed to the tangled and time-shifted way that reports with different details fly from different sources to different receivers. It sounds as though reports of two incidents have become cross-wired which *actually happens quite frequently*, much to the very profitable enjoyment of major websites filled with kooks for editors and kooks for readers. No doubt a certain amount of bureaucratic ass-covering and plain old incompetence has been brought to bear by the United States government, and yes the military (don’t get mad–you all know at least one). That always smells fishy. Finally, a separate form of incompetence would be required to actually decide to dump his body at sea*, but I have seen that secret weapon in action. That rare breed of high-ranking foolishness, while not as commonplace as, say, heroic deeds which go unrecognized, or situations where one person is given credit for the actions of another, is nonetheless not in short supply.<\/p>\n
Ten years into what should be our crown jewel counterinsurgency, we still have (I would guess, from thin air) a majority of officers who will only pay lip service to proper CI, and view it as a way to keep tabs on things until the real fight begins. Sigh.<\/p>\n
So there need not be any sort of cover-up to fully explain this pile of smelly decisions and conflicting stories. You just have to believe that in the history of bureaucracy, government, and military culture, some things never change. If there is credible, unavoidable evidence that there is some great conspiracy and cover up and so on and so forth, then I will be quite interested. But even the fact that this blessed event comes on the heels (or the toes, depending upon which timeline you follow) of massive shake-ups in the national security apparatus, and just in time for a long-advertised but seemingly impossible pullout\/reduction\/drawdown\/ retreat\/abandonment\/surrender is not enough to propel me past my staggering disappointment in the workaday incompetence and justifiable confusion in the halls of government. That’s an awfully high bar, and it has not yet been met. \u00a0Some things never change.<\/p>\n
Just before the newsleak became a torrent, I wrote:<\/p>\n
“If this is “bin Laden is dead”, we’re going to need a united front. El Jefe will have my support. To paraphrase Ben-Gurion, I will fight the Marxism [in the White House] as if there is no war on terror, and fight the war on terror as if there is no Marxism.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This remains my view.<\/p>\n
\n* One mitigation of this decision is that dumping it at sea would preclude the possibility of a bin Laden “burial site” shrine. \u00a0If it turns out that there is a whole ton of quality photography made available so that nobody can deny that it was OBL, I shall have to re-write this item.<\/p>\n
\r\n\r\n \r\n <\/i>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/span>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n <\/i>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are some things which don’t add up, but at this stage, that makes a lot of sense. \u00a0Calling it \u00a0conspiracy at this stage is crazy talk. \u00a0Here’s why:<\/p>\n
People who have not dealt with what we might call an “operational” tempo and style of events, or those who have forgotten what that is like, will tend to find fault with minor discrepancies, and to lose their composure when large discrepancies are found. Some of the discrepancies are reports of the method and time of bin Laden’s demise, a photograph purportedly of bin Laden which is hardly dispositive, and an incredibly stupid decision to dump his body at sea*. At least that’s the story today.<\/p>\n
No matter how queer this all looks, consider the alternative: a conspiracy to … Continue reading