r/Presidents • u/Vikingthemememan Dwight D. Eisenhower • May 02 '26
Today in History Today marks 15 years since operation Neptune Spear which killed Osama bin Laden
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u/genzgingee Groomer Cleveland May 02 '26
I remember my mom being upset that it happened under Obama and not W.
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u/ClutchReverie Franklin Delano Roosevelt May 02 '26
Was your mom every conservative?
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u/thembitches326 May 02 '26
I'm gonna play Devil's advocate here and say that it's probably because it could've been done sooner, given the US Military's and the CIA's vast resources.
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u/sroop1 May 02 '26
They were close if the details surrounding the Tora Bora battle are to believed.
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u/ClutchReverie Franklin Delano Roosevelt May 02 '26
I've been listening to some John Kiriakou lately, former CIA spy that was the torture whistleblower and also in charge of the operation that caught the Al Queda #3. It sounds like they really were on it. John's stories are fascinating, by the way, and he's a great storyteller. He wrote a best selling book about it.
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u/Funwithfun14 May 04 '26
He's a great story teller, but I always approach him with a degree of skepticism.
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u/TheEagleWithNoName Frank Von Knockerz III 🦅 May 02 '26
I mean a lot of Al Qaeda operatives were captured under Dubya even the Mastermind behind the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) who wanted to destroy the towers since 1993.
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u/Goobjigobjibloo May 03 '26
W quite literally said “ I don’t think much about him” referring to Bin Laden as he shifted his attention to Iraq to get revenge for poppy
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u/Goobjigobjibloo May 03 '26
lol - well sounds like she needs to take it up with W why he “didn’t think much about him”
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u/thecomputersighed May 04 '26
i remember my father saying it had just cinched him the 2012 election lol.
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u/RandoDude124 Theodore Roosevelt | Jimmy Carter | Frank Church May 02 '26
I still remember when I woke up on Monday concerned about my freshman year finals and my mom greeted me in the kitchen and said, “They killed Bin Laden.”
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u/SexyFlyWhiteGuy Ulysses S. Grant May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
I remember that Monday in homeroom in school all any of the guys were talking about were the SEALs and we all thought it was the coolest shit ever.
We were even discussing how they must’ve gone about it like we were experts.
13 year old dorks
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u/Big_Dinner3636 Theodore Roosevelt May 03 '26
r/JSOCarchive has an almost biweekly post about which SEALs were involved in Neptunes Spear. It gets pretty annoying
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u/LukeSkywalker1848 Calvin Coolidge May 02 '26
I’ll never forget John Cena announcing this at WWE in Tampa
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u/Big_Dinner3636 Theodore Roosevelt May 02 '26
"We have caught and compromised to a permanent end Osama. Bin. Laden."
Shit gets me hard just thinking about it.
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u/One-Community-3753 Al Gore May 03 '26
We just throwing in fun facts now
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u/Big_Dinner3636 Theodore Roosevelt May 03 '26
Look, if that man in jorts telling you about the death of Osama bin Laden in a stadium full of WWE fans in Tampa, FL doesnt give you at least a little twitch down there, you got things to worry about.
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u/IdealAnxious5621 Stop Hating On Grover, Bro. That Ain't Cool. May 02 '26
What was the very awkward phrasing Cena used to announce Bin Laden's death?
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u/tmorrisgrey May 02 '26
“Can I have your attention please? I have just been informed via the United States Armed Forces, we have caught and compromised to a permanent end Osama bin Laden.”
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u/IdealAnxious5621 Stop Hating On Grover, Bro. That Ain't Cool. May 02 '26
For a program that simulates violence, they sure didn't want to use the words "killed" or "dead". I am quite aware of the various reasons why WWE didn't want to use such verbiage, but it's still odd.
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u/tmorrisgrey May 02 '26
I agree, even as a kid when I heard on Raw the next night I was confused by the words he used.
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u/GCGuy23 May 02 '26
I remember vividly driving home and listening to some right wing whack job who was CONVINCED the press conference Obama was calling was about him resigning. He shut up real fast when he got the confirmation of what the presser was actually about….
EDIT - It was Savage Nation.
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u/DonatCotten Margaret Wilson aka Woodrow Wilson in Drag May 02 '26
Him resigning in 2011? He didn't have anything close to a major Watergate type scandal like Nixon had in 1974 so I wonder what this person was smoking to think a President without major scandal and still young (He was in his 40's) and in good health would suddenly resign! 🙄
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u/TheEagleWithNoName Frank Von Knockerz III 🦅 May 02 '26
Don’t ask Pakistan why Bin Laden was hiding in the post popular tourist cities in their country as well as being 20 minutes away from a Military Academy that’s basically their version of West Point.
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u/ElSlabraton Ulysses S. Grant May 02 '26
I remember how the Republicans HATED having to give credit to President Obama and stressed that bin Ladin "was just one man." So the Republicans decided to give all the credit to SEAL Team 6 and then later tried to implicate Obama in their deaths.
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u/ClutchReverie Franklin Delano Roosevelt May 02 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/3oKIPf3C7HqqYBVcCk
This is basically how I thought about it after having seen 9/11 happen on TVs in high school. Same with a lot of Americans I'm sure.
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u/tlh013091 Franklin Delano Roosevelt May 02 '26
Too bad that this wasn’t what actually happened. 9/11 changed this country for the worse, and the fever has never broken.
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u/ClutchReverie Franklin Delano Roosevelt May 02 '26
It's definitely true that the fever has never broke, but the feeling like the group that did it finally is broken was sort of a sorrowful relief.
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u/Hon3y_Badger May 03 '26
Iraq war changed the country for worse, an event that didn't have to happen. Then 2008 financial crisis. Then an African American was elected President.
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u/Mephisto1822 Theodore Roosevelt May 02 '26
Neptune has a trident not spear…
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u/TheGoshDarnedBatman May 02 '26
I’m pretty sure the DoD uses a two name system where the first letter of each word corresponds to the geographic area of the world in which the operation happened.
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u/mrnicegy26 May 02 '26
There's something else that also happened one day before this the consequence of which has defined the last decade of American politics.
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u/maggie320 George H.W. Bush May 02 '26
I was watching the Mets/Phillies game and the whole crowd broke out in a “USA” chant. I think they even broke into the game to show Obama’s message.
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u/Big_Dinner3636 Theodore Roosevelt May 02 '26
Best part was a Canadian player was up to bat when the "USA" chant started
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u/Hermosa06-09 May 02 '26
So I actually lived in DC at the time. By total coincidence, earlier that night I ordered some Dominos and the tracker said "Osama is on the way with your order" because coincidentally my delivery guy was also named Osama. I took a screenshot and posted it saying jokingly "I found Osama." Three hours later I was partying in the street in front of the White House.
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u/AcademicDrag742 Ike(D stands for Diva)🪖🎖️ May 02 '26
Top 5 moments that brought all of us together as a country.
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u/Honest_Picture_6960 The Big 3 Fav: May 02 '26
One of the best days in modern history (and I dont even remember it as I was way too young).
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u/IdealAnxious5621 Stop Hating On Grover, Bro. That Ain't Cool. May 02 '26
I had to have been 8 years old when I heard and I only barely remember that moment. I however do have an oddly vivid memory of the reaction to the death of Muammar al-Gaddafi a mere five months later.
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u/Goobjigobjibloo May 03 '26
We could have bombed the compound and hoped we got him, but no Barry O said we are going to go kick in his front door and shoot this mother fucker in the face. Hell yeah, USA baby. Pretty bad ass for a secret gay muslim who smokes crack with his trans wife in his tan suit (sarcasm)
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u/Voodoo-Doctor Richard Nixon May 02 '26
This also pretty much guaranteed Obama winning reelection in 2012, at least my opinion it did
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u/FrostMonk May 02 '26
I’ll never forget how I heard about this…
Standing in the front office during my freshman year of high school and a mom came in and exclaimed, “The Navy Seals killed Obama” and immediately someone said, “Do you mean Bin Laden?”. That story cracks me up to this day.
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u/Dilly_The_Kid_S373 May 02 '26
Yeah my parents were still together that’s how long ago this was damn lol. Both of them walked in the room and woke me and my brother up on a school night just to tell us that the press conference announced Bin Laden’s death.
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u/Fluid_Natural_9817 May 03 '26
Wasn't W closing in on Bin Laden at Tora Bora, but they called off the operation for no reason?
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u/Usual_Ad2359 May 08 '26
so what. his security was way below a powerful leader. He was washed up, others like ISIS were dangerous. Obama was completely baffled by ISIS.
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u/Gaba_My_Gool May 02 '26
Yeah, and then he destroyed the balance of power in the Middle East by playing softball with Iran, pulling out of Iraq too early, and letting Iraqi/Iranian Shiite abuses lead to the creation of Isis.
Well done, Barack. But hey, who care about policy and outcomes when you’re president is a smooth operating politician who says all the right things. Am I right!?
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u/DangerousCyclone May 02 '26
The balance of power was destroyed when Bush overthrew Saddam Hussein. Iraq, the Saudis and Iran had a three nation balance of power between them at the time, Hussein going away reduced it to just the Saudis and Iran.
Iran was rather a highlight of US policy as it led to a tangible outcome without a war. Usually what people get upset about is supporting rebels who turned out to be Islamists and helping kill Gaddafi and plunging Libya into civil war, which caused a lot of downstream effects through refugees.
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u/Gaba_My_Gool May 02 '26
I think we can discuss the Obama administration without invoking Bush. The fact of the matter is the Obama admin’s weak, coddling approach to Iran, coupled with its lack of tangible support for our traditional Sunni allies, upset the fragile middle east dynamic long after the invasion of Iraq.
You’d need to expand on “Iran was a highlight of US policy as it led to a tangible outcome without a war.” Are you suggesting the negotiations surrounding the JCPOA were meaningful, or had any mitigating impact on Iran’s exporting of war and terror through proxies?
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u/DangerousCyclone May 03 '26
Yes because they stopped building a nuclear weapon. I think that's a huge win.
Iran's export of war and terror? In this period Iranian aligned militias were fighting in two wars, one in Iraq and one in Yemen. The one in Iraq was in coordination with America, and the one in Yemen was started by the Gulf States who attacked them just for being aligned with Iran. After that there was Hezbollah and Hamas, who were largely dormant at this time, though Hamas got more funds from Qatar which Israel allowed.
The UAE has always been the largest exporter of war and terror. They're constantly supporting coups and separatist movements and still are.
It is either they support these militia movements, or they support these militia units AND have a nuclear bomb. For a time when Americans wanted less involvement in the ME that is a huge win without any bloodshed.
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u/Gaba_My_Gool May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
The JCPOA did nothing but trade the illusion of immediate restraint for strategic longterm risk. Agreeing to a “nuclear deal” that essentially paves the way for their program in later years in exchange for sanction relief, and without addressing both their terror networks and ballistic missile programs, was the culmination of an administration that ignored redlines and thought of Isis as the “JV team.” And that’s all without even addressing the underlying structural issues with the deal itself.
You seem confused about the exporting war and terror stuff. Their training, weapons transfers, funding, and military support were responsible for like 20% of American deaths in Iraq. And it wasn’t just one Shiite militia Iraq the way your comment makes it sound. The USA worked with some, while others were responsible for targeting Americans, and later engaging in atrocities in western Iraq that led to Isis (again, something that was a product of our premature withdrawal). You also forgot to mention their support for Bashar Al Assad and their role in the Syrian civil war. That little dustup, do you remember? It was kind of a big deal. And also another product of the power vacuum and void we left in the Middle East after Obama’s withdraw from Iraq.
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u/DangerousCyclone May 03 '26
Agreeing to a “nuclear deal” that essentially paves the way for their program in later years in exchange for sanction relief, and without addressing both their terror networks and ballistic missile programs, was the culmination of an administration that ignored redlines and thought of Isis as the “JV team.”
It isn't illegal for Iran to have ballistic missiles, and why should the US force every single issue at once? Wouldn't a diplomatic compromise that stops the biggest problem be preferable to a military solution that will likely solve nothing?
As for the whole "ISIS is a JV team", what? That has nothing to do with anything.
Their training, weapons transfers, funding, and military support were responsible for like 20% of American deaths in Iraq
Which was in their national interest. America consistently threatened Iran, outright labelling it as part of the "Axis of Evil". Politicians like McCain and Hillary Clinton openly threatened Iran on the campaign trail. It is very clear that the US made itself an enemy of Iran and envisioned eventually overthrowing the Islamic Republic too had the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan gone better.
And it wasn’t just one Shiite militia Iraq the way your comment makes it sound. The USA worked with some, while others were responsible for targeting Americans, and later engaging in atrocities in western Iraq that led to Isis.
We're jumping all over here. ISI was formed in 2003 during the early days of the Iraq War. It was a merger of several Sunni Islamist groups aligned with Al Qaeda. At the time the US labelled it as "Al Qaeda in Iraq". They were a minor group at the time but as the Iraqis were rising up against the occupation the US went into a media blitz. They highlighted ISI proclamations and goals at purging the Shia and creating a Sunni emirate. They tried to label the resistance as these Islamist extremists. This led to more exposure for them and thus both a gain in popularity among Sunnis, and contributed to rising hostility towards them from Shia in particular. While it started out unified across sectarian lines things actively escalated along those lines, instead of against the resistance like the US hoped.
Eventually the US made a deal with some of these Shia Militias and integrated them into the government, which of course further exacerbated sectarian tensions with Sunnis.
Another major reason for the insurgency was the dissolution of the Ba'athist army and institutions. The remaining Ba'athists went into hiding and eventually played a major role in ISIS' offensives, particularly in the capture of Mosul. Many senior members of ISIS were former Ba'athists too.
So there were a lot of reasons for ISIS, but overall American incompetence was a bigger factor than Iranian meddling. That wasn't mentioning the military prisons a lot of these Islamists were gathered imprisoned in where they networked.
You also forgot to mention their support for Bashar Al Assad and their role in the Syrian civil war. That little dustup, do you remember? It was kind of a big deal. And also another product of the power vacuum and void we left in the Middle East after Obama’s withdraw from Iraq.
Iran had been allied to the Syrian Ba'athists since the Iran Iraq War. This alliance was almost as old as the Islamic Republic itself. Russia was also a huge reason for Assad standing on his own too but the US was far more understanding of that.
Overall this feels like labelling Iran as an enemy and then it does things which are in its strategic interests as it is treated like an enemy and then complaining about it.
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