WI: "Operation Geronimo" was Botched?

Pangur

Donor
I cannot se Obama authorising shooting down Pakistani fighters. Pakistan is not at war with US and doing that would make Pakistan into a rather unpleasant enemy I should think.

However, you are right in saying that if the Pakistani air defence had picked up on the helicopters early i process, then what?

Shooting down the helo with OBL onboard would not be great in any way.

Ivan

You add a good twist to this scenario - The Pakistan AF don't know which chopper he is on and if he is dead or alive. Do they shoot or not?

On another note; the facts are that they did not intercept the choppers which implies to me that they opted for a 'lets get this mess out of way fast' I find it hard to believe that they were not able to track and intercept if they choose to
 
I also found it strange that the rather efficient Pakistani controls could not pick up the helo's. OK, those were "stealthy", but the chinook is not exactly stealthy or less noisy.

It does point to "forewarned".

Ivan
 

Pangur

Donor
I also found it strange that the rather efficient Pakistani controls could not pick up the helo's. OK, those were "stealthy", but the chinook is not exactly stealthy or less noisy.

It does point to "forewarned".

Ivan

Yep, there is no other explanation. Lets call it all out; the raid was to take out c&8k sucked number number, his very presence once found was an huge issue for Pakistan The US taking him out was in their advantage PURE AND SIMPLE
 
Forewarning

Yep, there is no other explanation. Lets call it all out; the raid was to take out c&8k sucked number number, his very presence once found was an huge issue for Pakistan The US taking him out was in their advantage PURE AND SIMPLE

Actually, the helos were flying nap of the earth, or really low to the ground flying close to hills and other land formations to help block ground radar. As for the fighters, when the US sold F-16s to Pakistan, they insisted on a liason officer at the air base and he was ordered to go there and observe if the PAF scrambled. He didn't know about the raid or about UBL, just that they wanted to know if any fighters scramble.
 
How might this effect the Election of 2012?

Depends how badly the raid goes. If it's completely FUBAR (SEALs get killed, helicopters get attacked by the Pakistanis, OBL survives and boasts about it to the world, etc), the GOP paints Obama as Carter redux.

The uproar would make the OTL response by the Republicans to Benghazi look like a mild dispute by comparison.

IMHO Romney (or whoever the nominee is) wins with approx 300 EVs.
Just my $0.02.
 
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