OBL's Mancave

All murderers are punished unless they kill
in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets
--Voltaire

Let us tend to our gardens
--Candide, Voltaire
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It's late, and I'm a bit punchy. But my reaction to this story is rather telling about the whole shebang (for me, anyway). First, the clip:

• Info from Osama raid shows interest in US trains (AP)

  AP - Some of the first information gleaned from Osama bin Laden's compound indicates al-Qaida considered attacking U.S. trains on the upcoming anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. But counterterrorism officials say they believe the planning never got beyond the initial phase and have no recent intelligence pointing to an active plot for such an attack.

My first reaction upon reading the head was,

"By Gawd, the poor man had a Lionel train set up in his mancave -- Lionel!!! -- and we killed him, when he really -- secretly -- loved us and our toys!"

That simple reaction tells a few things: [1] What a hopeless, pathetic romantic I am; [2] How severely I distrust the news given me by most major news outlets and, [3] What a failure the entire hunt for OBL has been that his assassination leaves me with the least bit of sympathy for my sworn enemy.

Then I read the story and thought, "This is probably hogwash to quell any suspicion that Bin Laden had in reality been largely superannuated." The whole cascade of events, from the blatant reality that our actual enemy is Pakistan and we daren't do a thing (unless we pull a Qaddafi on Zardari) to the anticlimactic assassination of OBL and Obama's fallow statement that "justice has been done" and wreath laying in NYC today -- it all strikes me as so robotic and forced, and not authentic.

When will the U.S. leave the sandbox and tend to our own gardens, which are becoming monstrously overgrown with weeds?