Can't wait for US Special Forces to slip over the North Korean border -head cameras and all.
[ Just because NIxon choked -he was a Republican - and Ike backed off, having been badly advised, there is no reason to believe that nowadays anywhere is off limits. There is a groundswell of public support, the Twitter/Facebook generation, for action against the bad guys.
In Ike's day the voter had had enough of the 49th parallel and come to think of it when Dick was president there was no call for military action when the North Koreans impounded the 'Pueblo' and downed the RB 47.]

Hubba hubba

sid: Actually only 37 fighters from the eighties fought against 'us'.

Is it OK if I refrain from shedding tears, but also refrain from whooping around the streets chanting USA USA?

I see no more or less reason to celebrate than I see reason to mourn. Frankenstein topping his own monster is undoubtedly newsworthy, but ANY celebration is just as distasteful as any mourning.

I also find Hodges lionising of Obama pretty tasteless too, but the idea that 'he did what Bush couldn't' is probably what will win him the 2012 election, so I suppose I should expect more of that in the next 18 months, rather than any actual politics.

This is just my opinion though, so feel free to 'balance' it.

@Luddite

The very serious problem for the so-called political-left is, many are crying bucketful's. Another mass-murdering Icon, bites the dust.

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So very true. How is that supposedly atheist people so much in love with mass murdering religious bigots? Or is that their hate hinders any kind of reasoning. At all. Pi...

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Can I ask where you get that information from?

Pardon my ignorance but I am currently in the middle of the inca trail therefore haven´t been monitoring the coverage that closely, but I would just like to know where Omar´s old mate Mehdi has disappeared to...Does anyone know Mehdi Hassans whereabouts?

And if that is a possibility don't you reckon the US should occupy Pakistan?

"We are all Hizbullah now," proclaimed a few of the banners at the Stop the War coalition's London march held aloft by members of the SWP. No flirtation Chris?

Mr Diwine, that would be great if it were true, but its funny how the people who keep telling us that Bin Laden and his views are held by a minority...day by day we see many many Muslims who keep Misunderstanding the religion of peace...

Will,

It is OK

But "ANY celebration is just as distasteful as any mourning"...?

Really?

A medieval mind set.

DK,

"Why can't Blairites say "The Blair administration deliberately lied to its electorate in order to wage an illegal war that killed hundreds of thousands and had nothing to do with Bin Laden" and leave it there?"

Ed Miliband, in terms, said just that.

Caused quite a stir if you recall.

@liam C; Mehdi is on the Inca trial too, he's just behind you.

Did you ever watch that program 'Catweazle'?

Some guy from 1066 comes to modern (1970s!) Britain and starts cycling around the place on a tricycle! That was a great program.

It would be really interesting to have your mind changed back to someone from medieval ages don't you think?

Osama bin Laden WAS Catweazle

And Osama bin Laden cycled around his Pakistani neighbourhood on Wednesday afternoons on a tricycle. He wore a helmet and big Posh Spice sunglasses as a disguise.

Read "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright. Bin Laden didn't order 9/11, he wasn't even wanted for it. He was wanted for the embassy bombings and the USS Cole attack. Boasting about something doesn't mean you did it. He had advance knowledge, though. This article is a lazy piece of journalism.

No he's not he's in Aussie hiding from Laurie Penny, you can run Mehdi but she'll get you!

Dan Hodges,

Having fun with your Tory mates in celebration of decades more of the status quo?

The two distinctive schools of thought can more astutely be delineated as follows: 1) those who actively use critical reason and believe that the omission of photos, along with the disposal of his body, along with reports from French Intelligence saying he died in 2006, constitute a disinformation campaign by the US government. People on this side are aware that governments do lie, often for political and economic gain. I submit that there may well be a tripartite strategy behind the actions of the US to kill Bin Laden at this time (if he really was still alive at the time): a) to boost Obama's ratings (they were at an all time low before this); b) to paint eastern democratic revolutions as the spawn of Al Qaeda and to instigate a greater military presence in the host countries from which they arise (watch this space);3) to distract the general public from the fact that the world economy is slowly but surely moving into a depression. The dollar has been declining for quite some time, and the death of Bin Ladin is a helpful distraction for the peasants on food stamps. The simple reality of this school of thought is that it wishes for "evidence" before the case can be closed. This is a reasonable position and an admirable one.

The other school of thought is, sadly, one that derives its "reason" from authority and from what the corporate media and government is telling them. So, for example, this school believes that makes sense for the US government not to reveal the body of Bin Laden, because it would stir up uprisings in the Middle East. The problem with this is that the same principle - thinking rationally yet again - was not applied to Saddam Hussein who was taken back to the US and executed. He was on trial (better thought of as a kangaroo court) for all to see and promptly bumped off. Another point accepted by this school is the idea that the US were trying to fulfil the edicts of Muslim culture by burying him at sea. The problem with this assertion is that it goes against the dominant view of Islamic scholarship (look at this article in the Guardian: "Sea Burial of Osama Bin Laden Breaks Sharia Law, Say Muslim Scholars" 2/5/11). Also, the same principle evidently didn't apply to Saddam Hussein's children who, as the article shows,"were embalmed and held for 11 days after they were killed by US forces." This school of thought also accepts the view that "justice" has been served. The difficulty here is that justice cannot be equated with murder; for to do so, would mean that any squabble might end in bloody violence. Rather, according to the statutes of international law - and remember the US is now finally a signatory to the ICC - justice is only justice when it is ascribed to a body of laws. This, coupled with the idea of due process, fair trial, fair representation, is supposed to be the "western way"; yet this due process was not granted.

Finally, those in the first school see that there are some problems with the conflicting statements emerging from the White House. On the one hand, it is claimed that Bin Ladin was killed "after" a firefight. Then it was claimed he was killed "during" a firefight. Then it was claimed that Osama was unarmed. The fact that the story keeps changing is, one must contend, suspicious. For the fact is that the story would have been related in full by those taking part in the operation: so why the many changes to the official narrative? Also, I must say that i am not partial to conspiracy theories. What I am partial to is trying to understand the truth of an otherwise very murky enterprise. It appears, given the above, that the US decision to dispose of the body and not to realise photographic evidence; along with its inability to test his DNA and to send it to other labs; along with its shifting narrative of what happened: that the truth is not being served. Think also on this point: if the US really caught Bin Laden, do you REALLY think they wouldn't have it plastered over cable TV? Do you REALLY think they would operate in a suddenly reserved manner? It is important that we stay alert to the fabrications and to rationally quantify what is going on.

We have a whole wodge of uman rites lawyers and assorted hangers on , itching for this show trial of the century. Stafford Smith sheds crocodile tiles or even genuine tears over sadistic murderers! one sadistic murderer told us through stafford Smith that he had nothing but contempt for us non sadistic murders for putting the sadistic murderer to death!

Mrs Nobody,

I in fact specifically say" It was a day for remembering the thousands who died in the 11 September attacks, and the grotesque global slaughter that followed".

No, but others will.

@Luddite,

Try not to conflate your deluded fantasies with reality.

A peculiar argument against a straw man - where are these mourners from Bin Laden, outside the ranks if jihadists? The closest I see are those registering their distaste for the examples of flag-waving fist-pumping American triumphalism.

Do you support the death penalty then? I conclude from this statement that you do:

"And what of basic humanity? A fellow human being is dead. A life silenced for ever. Surely that should give pause?
"No. True humanity should not give pause. Compassion, empathy and understanding demand only one response. That we recall those who fell on bin Laden's command. Empathise with those we were left behind. And understand the reaction of those who rejoice in the closure his own death brings."