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How was Obama a hypocrite? And why was this a defining moment for the US? The US has been killing foreign nationals for decades, think of all the CIA operations in the past. Obama ordered 540 drone strikes during his 8 years in office. I think the OBL operation was an expected response after finding his location. And would anyone expect different actions from Russia? From Israel?

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Whether Obama is a hypocrite or not is certainly a matter of opinion. The defining moment was the missed opportunity to end, or begin to end, the war on terror.

Up until that point the invasions, surveillance, renditions, torture and threat to civil liberties could be justified as, or at least categorized as, means to oppose Al Qaeda. By killing bin Laden he became just another enemy in a long line of people that the US wants to kill. And the methods of the war on terror, instead of a regrettable period in US history, just another tool for the US to use as it sees fit.

> And would anyone expect different actions from Russia? From Israel?

Probably not, which is sort of the point.

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