[skip to end of diary for diary title question. UPDATE: in comments, a few are unhappy with use of word "conspiracy". However, we have yet to hear any fleshed-out alternative theories from said commenters, as of 1pm PST]
I'm a news junkie. Have been since college a few years ago. Modern-day news is like a car accident you just can't turn away from. Probably not too healthy to read it every day, and I usually avoid news (and Internet) when I'm out of town as I was these past few days.
While gathered around the teevee a couple nights back, watching the nba playoffs with a few other dudes, the Osama story broke. The exact memory of "when I first heard Osama died" is kind of vague, due to the fact that Osama bin Laden is not terribly important to me, although his evasion of U.S. capture has served as a Point of Irony for the past decade. I believe the nba playoff game actually broke into the game with the news, and my buddies told me to change the channel to cable news to see the President's address.
For those of us who are political junkies, it's amusing to make comments on political speeches as they happen, just as sports fans talk a lot during sports events/pressers. But my buddies, who are politically apathetic, had their eyes glued to the screen. Though I was enjoying the speech Obama gave, a smile was glued to my face.
Ah, politics. I smiled every time Obama took credit for the killing, and inwardly imagined all the whining from the neocons. [ Imagine: "they took Bush's credit" being said in same voice as South Park hillbillies, "they took er JEBS"].
But then we all started talking amongst ourselves. S. and I expressed shock at the video clips being shown, repeatedly, of 20-something kids with frat sweatshirts and American flags on. It looked like a college had just won a football game. War is not a game or a joke or a sports event. Even the targeted killing of Osama resulted in the loss of life of a woman who may have been uninvolved.
All those reports that got leaked to the media? About the "vicious firefight?" NOPE! Then an hour later on the teevee I see the macho-testicles that Jon Stewart (ugh, Jon, why??) put onto the map of the U.S. [ Pres. Obama's tone of seriousness is most appropriate for these events ]
http://news.yahoo.com/...
Only one of the five people killed in the raid that got Osama bin Laden was armed and fired a shot, a senior defense official said Thursday, acknowledging the new account differs greatly from original administration portrayals of a chaotic, intense and prolonged firefight.
As the Navy SEALs moved into bin Laden's compound, they were fired on by bin Laden's courier, who was in the guesthouse, the official said. The SEALs returned fire, and the courier was killed, along with a woman with him. The official said she was hit in the crossfire.
The Americans were never fired on again as they encountered and killed a man on the first floor and then bin Laden's son on a staircase, before arriving at bin Laden's room. Officials have said bin Laden was killed after he appeared to be lunging for a weapon.
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