[acdha]

> Was the United States not supposed to go after Osama Bin Laden?

I'm with mikeash on this: sometimes the cost is too high.

For the sake of argument, compare it to more traditional hypothetical trade-offs, starting with what almost nobody would have considered justified:

Would getting Bin Laden have justified dropping a nuke on Abbottabad? … What about conventional bombing the entire city? … the neighborhood? … the block? … that house?

I suspect that the number of bystander casualties most people would consider too high is lower than the number of people who have already died either directly (medical workers) or indirectly (unvaccinated children).