I've been thinking about this since it was posted. A lot of people, myself included, have never thought kindly toward snipers. I could never get my head around the fact that they work in secret, from cover, and kill without warning. My feelings surely come from the stories from Southeast Asia where the CIA and other covert types took out village chiefs and other operatives... guys that were seemingly noncombatants. The public, of course, simply had to take the word of the government that these people were bad guys and considering what we now know about our government then, it's not beyond reason to think that not all of those kills were justified. That was then.
Now we are engaged in a whole other kind of world. We've got pirates taking US citizens at gunpoint and demanding tribute for their return. We've got suicide bombers and religious zealots who will do anything to kill Americans. We've got the low rent types cooking up Castor beans to extract Ricin to poison as many as possible. These people kill everyone, women, children, the handicapped, each other... it doesn't matter to them. The only defense against an enemy like this is to kill them before the fact.
Having considered these things for a few days I have to say that I'm extremely proud of the Navy Seals and the professional job they did, particularly their frugal use of ammunition. It seems to me that we have come into the age of the sniper. While there are people who ignore any kind of respect or the rules of common decency then it is justifiable to have snipers around to blow out their candles. You get what you give.
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