Quote Originally Posted by Gelatinous Cube View Post
Perfectly feasible. He was in Yemen, a nation that was effectively under the control of Al Qaeda at the time. Sending in a team would have had much less political repurcussions than sending in the team to kill OBL did.
And yet it wasn't done. Perhaps the idea had the drawbacks that you and I aren't privy to know? With Osama the idea of a hellfire missle was also an option. It was rejected because the missile didn't guarantee that Osama would be dead. Awlaki was killed while traveling, got a 100% positive ID via drone and then kaboom. Osama never left the building, that's why the seals were sent in.

And there surely would have been no shortage of voltunteers; hell I was in the Army at the time, I totally would have gone for it.
Why needlessly risk your life?

Unfortunately, the president knew he could get away with taking the easy way out.
A smart way out.


Cowardly, yes. Afraid to do the hard thing even though it is the right thing. If you let your leaders make cowardly decisions, it reflects on the nation. We have a lot of cowards in America, and that's a bummer.
The notion of bravado for the sake of sake of bravado smells of a death wish. Accomplishing one's goal with the smallest possible risk is the smart way to go.