mobius: the existence, position and cause of bin laden is hardly within the last 2 years. Even normal, non-intelligence personnel, have been hearing about him for more than that.

Anyways, what possible difference could it possibly make how long ago we heard about him? Hitler wasnt evil becuase some people in the world never heard of him prior to his actions? That's completely absurd. You see, you have your order wrong. You think that a person must be evil because we've heard about him in the news for some time. I would say that we heard about him in the news BECAUSE of whats been done. The media is not generally a proactive source. They often report news that has already happened. bin laden did not need the news to become the asshole he is now.

I do not consider America/British actions against the Taliban as senseless death and destruction. It's terrible that innocent civilians died, both in the United States as well as in Afghanistan. The difference here is that the situation was almost entirely in the Talibans hands. They could have, and should have at least started investigating terrorist activities, arresting known terrorists, closed terrorist training camps and cooperated with the global community. To openly admit that not only did they know where osama bin laden was, but they were in fact hiding him was just plain stupid.

Two word summary of my life after having been to 5 funeral services in the past 3 weeks: Fuck You