Osama Bin Laden has been killed

[rubato]

Ok, its nasty and uncivil but I did think about putting his body in a meat grinder with a couple of pig carcasses and then feeding the output to still more pigs which were given to bears to eat.

But I'm not really embarrassed about it. Not at all.


yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

Why pick on native Americans?

He died 102 years ago in Oklahoma, a beaten warrior, a prisoner of war, an exile from his homeland, a propped-up sideshow, a gambler and a lukewarm Christian. His family was murdered by Mexicans. The Americans stripped him of most everything else.

And yet, the Apache born near the Gila River in present-day Arizona with the not-very-impressive name of Goyahkla (“One Who Yawns”) rode into history as the legendary Geronimo.

It was his name that the U.S. military chose as the code for the raid, and perhaps for Osama bin Laden himself, during the operation that killed the al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan. That led to the iconic transmission from the raid: “Geronimo EKIA.” Geronimo, Enemy Killed in Action.

In a triumphant moment for the United States, the moniker has left a sour taste among many Native Americans.

“I was celebrating that we had gotten this guy and feeling so much a part of America,” Tom Holm, a former Marine, a member of the Creek/Cherokee Nations and a retired professor of American Indian studies at the University of Arizona, said by phone Tuesday. “And then this ‘Geronimo EKIA’ thing comes up. I just said, ‘Why pick on us?’ Robert E. Lee killed more Americans than Geronimo ever did, and Hitler would seem to be evil personified, but the code name for bin Laden is Geronimo?”

Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the Morning Star Institute, a Native American advocacy group based in Washington, has long fought against the use of Indian imagery in American life (including as the mascot of the Washington Redskins).

She sighed when asked about the latest iteration of Geronimo.

“It’s how deeply embedded the ‘Indian as enemy’ is in the collective mind of America,” she said. “To this day, when soldiers are going into enemy territory, it’s common for it to be called ‘Indian country.’ ”

It isn’t clear yet which branch of the military came up with the nickname — the Army, Navy, CIA or any of the anti-terror special forces groups involved in planning the raid — but it apparently wasn’t bin Laden’s nickname for very long.

A database search of news stories shows that, while military leaders sometimes compared bin Laden’s elusiveness to Geronimo’s, there is no news account of calling the al-Qaeda leader “Geronimo” until this past weekend.

But the Apache leader’s name has often been used in the name for projects in Afghanistan, such as the Marine Forward Operating Base Geronimo in the Helmand province, reports show.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle ... story.html

[Econoline]

Now where did they put that "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" banner, now that it's actually appropriate?

Oh yeah...Bush took it back to Texas with him when he left....

...he has it hanging on his bedroom wall.

[Econoline]

Interesting slide-show of various newspaper front page stories. My favorites:

[dgs49]

What's in a name?

It is ironic that we know this certain native American by the name, "Geronimo," which is the Spanish rendering of his Christian name. His given name of Goyahkla (can you buy me a vowel?) may be unpronounceable and reminds one of the Yiddish term, "goy," referring a male gentile - which he was, I guess.

Would he be as revered if he were known by the English rendering of his Christian name, "Jerome"?

I rather doubt it. Geronimo has a ring to it, you know?

[Lord Jim]

A little more on the "Geronimo" thing. (I remembered that when we were playing as little kids when we would jump off of something we would frequently yell the word.)

In Reply to: Geronimooooooo! posted by Amy McGee on January 13, 2000

: Can anyone tell me why paratroopers shout "Geronimo"? I've been looking and looking for the origin, and I'm about to die of curiosity!
: AM

GERONIMO - From the "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins" (Second Edition, HarperCollins, 1977) by William and Mary Morris: "From the earliest wars in recorded history, men have plunged into battle shouting battle cries. Indeed, our common word 'slogan' was originally the Gaelic 'sluggh-ghairm,' meaning the call to battle used by Scottish Highlanders and Irish clan. One of the most interesting of these cries is that used by the U.S. airborne paratroopers: 'Geronimo!'

When we speculated in print on why our soldiers use the name of a dead Apache chieftain for their slogan, several alumni of airborne regiments reported stories of its origin. A plausible one came from Arthur A. Manion. 'At Fort Sill, Oklahoma,' he wrote, 'a series of rather steep hills, called, I believe, Medicine Bluffs, was pointed out to all new arrivals. It was said that one day Geronimo, with the army in hot pursuit, made a leap on horseback down an almost vertical cliff - a feat that the posse could not duplicate. The legend continues that in the midst of this jump to freedom he gave out the bloodcurdling cry of 'Geronimo-o-o!' Hence the practice adopted by our paratroopers. I hope this helps. It's at least colorful, if not authentic.'

Another correspondent, who once lived at Fort Sill, added the information that the bluff from which Geronimo made his daring leap 'is a cliff overlooking a small river.' So we know that Geronimo and his steed had water, rather than desert floor, to break their fall. Now, this is indeed an interesting tale and one that may very well be the real inspiration for the paratroopers were trained at Forts Bragg and Campbell. Why, then, did they reach to Fort Sill for inspiration for their battle cry?

R. Collier of Milwaukee offered a less glamorous but probably more accurate account of the origin of the call. 'In the early days of the 82nd Airborne,' he wrote, 'the men used to go to the nearby movie in Lafayetteville. During the week scheduled for the division's initial jumps, they saw a movie named 'Geronimo.' (If that wasn't the title, at least the Indian chief played a leading part.) Anyway, one guy hollered the name and one of those things no one can explain happened. The whole division took it up and from them it spread to the later-activated airborne forces.'"

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_boar ... s/175.html

So whatever the true story for the origin is, when plunging into a battle zone from the sky, "Geronimo" is something that paratoopers have long been know to shout. Since that was the essence of the nature of this mission, I suspect that's why the word was chosen, not for any reason related directly to the Indian chief.

[Crackpot]

No photos.

Guess the Birthers have a new conspiracy to latch on to.

[Big RR]

Depends, maybe he'll release the long form death certificate. It might even show bin Laden identified himself as a moslem.

[Lord Jim]

Guess the Birthers have a new conspiracy to latch on to.

And the Truthers...

The left wing nutters and the right wing nutters never seem to grasp the fact that they have so much in common....

[rubato]

The swift boat veterans will point out that neither Osama nor Obama were in Cambodia for Christmas and that's why they need birth certificates.

yrs,
rubato

[quaddriver]

Stomach Dumping Medications eh? I cannot even begin to imagine WTF that is....

[Gob]

Rowan "Beirdy weirdy" Williams, opens up and inserts foot..

Dr Williams said that when "faced with someone who was manifestly a war criminal... it is important that justice is seen to be served".

But "different versions of events" had done little to ensure that, he added.

The US said Bin Laden was a lawful military target and he had made no attempt to surrender.

Dr Williams, asked about the death during a press briefing on Thursday, said: "I think the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling because it doesn't look as if justice is seen to be done.

"In those circumstances I think it's also true that the different versions of events that have emerged in recent days have not done a great deal to help.

"I don't know the full details any more than anyone else does. But I do believe that in such circumstances when we are faced with someone who was manifestly a war criminal in terms of the atrocities inflicted it is important that justice is seen to be served."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13291480

Very easy to say that from the safety of the pulpit.

[rubato]

A carefully selective use of facts, akin to lying: "shooting an unarmed man" is literally accurate but fails to mention that many others were shooting back and Osama's character is known to be evil.

yrs,
rubato

[Big RR]

rubato--I can see how the others shooting back factors into the equation, but what difference does it make if bin Laden's character was "evil" or not. Unless you're W or a comic book hero, I don't think the position that "we have to take out the evildoers" should have any part in the discourse. We had a legitimate reason to take bin Laden into custody and he resisted, having his bodyguards trying to drive us off--he was shot in the crossfire and/or prevent his escape, both perfectly legitimate reasons (even if he were mother teresa these would have been legitimate reasons, assuming of course that the reason we had to take her into custody was legitimate). One need not invoke infantile comic book labels to justify what was done.

[loCAtek]

Geronimo was the code name of the operation; OBL was only known as 'E' for enemy.

[Andrew D]

The left wing nutters and the right wing nutters never seem to grasp the fact that they have so much in common....

But there is a crucial difference: The left-wing nutters are not running a political party, whereas the right-wing nutters are the Republican base.

[dgs49]

Would you care to name a single significant Republican national figure who expressed any doubt whatsoever about Barry's Hawaiian birth?

And if you say Donald Trump, I will track you down and kill you.

[Big RR]

dgs--Palin, in her best Jimmy Carter imitation, has come down on both sides of the issue, commending Trump for bringing the issue to the forefront but also saying she "thinks" Obama was born in Hawaii (based on a concurrent newspaper announcement of his birth). I see this as evidence of some doubt.