Kill or Capture Osama bin Laden? No Need to Anguish--There is Precedent

   The execution by American commandos of Osama bin Laden, the mass-murdering mastermind of El Quaida, is a direct parallel to the American ambush of Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor--which triggered WWII in the Pacific.
   Bin Laden publicly declared war on the United States in August of 1996 on behalf of the "people of  Islam" in a long tract entitled "Declaring War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places." He and his followers acted upon that Declaration and killed thousands of innocent people in years since then...including the devastating attack upon America on September 11, 2001, which, alone took the lives of  nearly 3,000 innocent people.
   That state of war still exists, even though neither bin Laden, nor any of his followers, were leaders of countries--(or were they?)...hmmm, President Bush did say El Quaida and Iraq's Saddam Hussein were in cahoots; the Taliban ruled Afghanistan and even though they went into hiding, no one called a cease fire or truce as they shut the door behind them in Kabul and went into the mountains to fight from cover. And, lately, many people suspect leadership circles in Pakistan were sympathetic to and maybe even hiding bin Laden for the past 10 years.
   Admiral Yamamoto  prepared and executed the plans for the attack on Pearl Harbor which took the lives of more than 3,000 innocent people---until that surprise attack, it was peacetime in the Pacific. He remained the mastermind of Japanese war strategy afterwards.
   In April of 1943 U.S. code-breakers learned that Yamamoto was making an inspection tour of some Japanese-held Pacific islands near Bougainville in the Solomons.
   President Franklin Roosevelt was informed and told his Secretary of the Navy: "Get Yamamoto!" The Navy dispatched a squadron of P-38 Lightning fighters to intercept and shoot down his plane. It was a very risky operation with the U.S. planes flying more than 430 miles one-way with drop-tanks for extra range. They flew most of the way between 10 and 50 feet above the waves to avoid detection by the Japanese. The Americans intercepted Yamamoto's flight, dispatched 6 escorting Japanese Zero fighter planes and shot down both bombers in the formation, one of which held Yamamoto. [one P-38 was lost.]
   The ambush was a major blow to Japanese morale--news of his death was held back in Japan for more than a month.
  The war against El Quaida was still in full gear when U.S. Intelligence finally located Osama bin Laden. Not in the same words, as Roosevelt, but President Barack Obama gave the go-ahead to: "Get bin Laden!"
   Since 9/11 Osama bin Laden had declared publicly through his followers that he wished to be "martyred" and would not be taken alive. Reports floated that he had several circles of protectors around him (...read, Pakistanis, maybe?) Supposedly, he had given orders for his own personal guards, including among them several sons, to shoot him before he would fall into American hands.
   There is no question, that he considered himself to be in a warlike situation and that the end would be in a warlike confrontation.
   The death of Osama bin Laden is a major blow to his followers and sympathizers, just as Yamamoto's was to Japan. The comparison is a little out of kilter, only because in the new age of warfare the field of battle is not clearly defined. But the strategy and tactics of destroying the enemy remain the same.
   Osama bin Laden was killed in a war of his own choosing and a casualty of the tactics he had, himself, chosen: stealth, surprise, and fatality coming from the shadows.