SEALs 1, al-Qaeda 0 (USA Today)

Autre retour sur le rôle de Navy seals et comparaison avec l'opération manquée en Iran (comme je le mentionnais hier).

Elite forces sent to rescue American hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran instead stumbled into a fiasco. A sandstorm fouled helicopter engines, leaving the team at a secret desert landing site without enough choppers to continue. When leaders aborted the mission, a helicopter collided with a C-130 cargo plane, killing eight American troops. It was a humiliating failure that raised serious doubts about the competence of both the Carter administration and the post-Vietnam U.S. military.

By comparison, Sunday's pre-dawn raid by Navy SEALs that killed Osama bin Laden at a compound in Pakistan was a textbook display of military skill and a testament to the rigorous training of the nation's special forces. Commandos arrived in four helicopters about 1 a.m., quickly found bin Laden and then killed him when he shot at them, officials said. After gathering up a trove of documents and destroying a helicopter that failed at the scene, they left with the al-Qaeda leader's body. Elapsed time: 40 minutes. U.S. casualties: none.
Just as impressive was the patient intelligence that led attackers to the compound in the first place, a years-long hunt that intensified in 2007 with the discovery of a key clue — the nickname of one of the couriers who connected bin Laden to the outside world.

lien pour l'article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2011-05-02-SEALs-1-al-Qaeda-0_n.htm

Lien pour un site des Seals: http://www.navyseals.com/