Message posted by Griffon_314 on May 11, 2011 at 6:29:38 PST:
An airstrike? On a compound that was swarmed by Pakistan army troops shortly after the raid? And where many women and children remained after the operation?I'm not at all surprised this didn't happen. As for deliberately leaving parts behind - this is the sort of ridiculous conspiracy theorizing that so often derails reasonable public discussion of classified operations and equipment. People, please, not EVERYTHING happens according to a master plan. Occam's razor is your friend - apply it before suggesting that events have all unfolded according to an intricate web of government deceit. It is reasonable to assume as fact that... 1. A JSOC operation targeted a compound in Abbottabad, and resulted in UBL being killed. It should surprise no one that Pakistan is exerting whatever leverage it can over the US with respect to the wreckage. Pakistan has maintained very close relations with both the US and China (and receives significant aid from both), and has been deeply embarrassed by this operation. Finally, others are asserting that Pakistan knew of UBL's whereabouts, or willingly turned a blind eye to this operation. This is just speculation - there's insufficient evidence to establish any of this as fact, no matter how forcefully people shout it from discussion boards. When it comes to secret aircraft (and secret military operations), there are many things we simply don't know. DLR is a great place to exchange tidbits about the things we do know, and to speculate reasonably based on those tidbits. But it's important to apply the law of parsimony when speculating. Otherwise, every high-altitude contrail becomes a super-stealth mach-15 robo-fighter, and every unexplained building in the desert becomes a hangar housing an alien spacecraft.
2. During that operation, a US helicopter was damaged, and subsequently destroyed by US forces - presumably somewhat hastily, using materials available to them at the time. Some components were left intact and photographs of these components appeared in the press.
3. This aircraft appears to have been an unknown type. Speculation is that its a stealthy H-60 mod, but that's just a guess. We don't know.
4. The fact that this aircraft is of an undeclared type, does not necessarily mean that ultra-secret stealth technology of the highest order would be exposed by leaving it's tail rotor behind.
In Reply to: Re: This just really pisses me off! posted by Mark. on May 10, 2011 at 20:31:30 PST:
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