I can remember a time when every dead Vietnamese was Viet Cong, by definition. And it seems that every dead person in Afghanistan or Iraq is a "militant", "insurgent" or "al-Qaeda". There is no assurance that a shotgun approach won't be used again. American fire discipline is not great, and when frightened the US has the ammunition to light up the entire area.

Now I'd sure as hell go after OBL wherever he was, and hopefully I'd have made enough friends that my intelligence would be better. The worst outcome of a strike is to kill a couple of families, women and children, while not touching the badguys. That's one collateral damage, that's murder, and loses "hearts and minds".

As far as the "secret" goes, do you think OBL isn't aware of every move the US makes in his area? That he doesn't know these things in real time, or sooner? That would be naive. The only secrets are from the American people.

Arf