Brian Klaas

Now, with the bin Laden raid, of course, one of the points I make is that you're trying to navigate what's called radical uncertainty, which is where you have no idea. I mean, nobody in America knew whether bin Laden was in that house, right? They had a guess. The CIA had sort of made an analysis and they said, you know, there's a person there that we think might be bin Laden. But we don't know.

You know, this is one of the things that's really extraordinary about this moment in American history is that that night was so incredibly consequential in several different ways. One is that Obama goes to the White House Correspondents Dinner, which is basically where the president tells jokes. They do sort of stand up.

You know, this is one of the things that's really extraordinary about this moment in American history is that that night was so incredibly consequential in several different ways. One is that Obama goes to the White House Correspondents Dinner, which is basically where the president tells jokes. They do sort of stand up.

You know, this is one of the things that's really extraordinary about this moment in American history is that that night was so incredibly consequential in several different ways. One is that Obama goes to the White House Correspondents Dinner, which is basically where the president tells jokes. They do sort of stand up.

And he has ordered in the Situation Room all the preparations to be made for this raid. And after he does stand up, he goes back to the Situation Room and watches them kill Osama bin Laden a few hours later. Extraordinary amounts of sort of steel nerves to tell jokes when you're gambling your presidency.

And he has ordered in the Situation Room all the preparations to be made for this raid. And after he does stand up, he goes back to the Situation Room and watches them kill Osama bin Laden a few hours later. Extraordinary amounts of sort of steel nerves to tell jokes when you're gambling your presidency.

And he has ordered in the Situation Room all the preparations to be made for this raid. And after he does stand up, he goes back to the Situation Room and watches them kill Osama bin Laden a few hours later. Extraordinary amounts of sort of steel nerves to tell jokes when you're gambling your presidency.

There's some confidence of Trump that say that that was the night he decided to run for president and wanted to contest for the 2016 election. So, you know, whether that's true or not, we'll never know. But it's one of these intriguing aspects of history. We have Obama gambling his presidency. as he's telling jokes, maybe inspiring Donald Trump to enter the political fray.

There's some confidence of Trump that say that that was the night he decided to run for president and wanted to contest for the 2016 election. So, you know, whether that's true or not, we'll never know. But it's one of these intriguing aspects of history. We have Obama gambling his presidency. as he's telling jokes, maybe inspiring Donald Trump to enter the political fray.

There's some confidence of Trump that say that that was the night he decided to run for president and wanted to contest for the 2016 election. So, you know, whether that's true or not, we'll never know. But it's one of these intriguing aspects of history. We have Obama gambling his presidency. as he's telling jokes, maybe inspiring Donald Trump to enter the political fray.

And then, of course, you know, one of the helicopters crashes, one of the Blackhawks crashes during the raid. They managed to kill bin Laden successfully, but it's, you know, I mean, they didn't know. There was no way to know. And one of the things that happens when you have moments like this is that You tell history with the benefit of hindsight. Of course, they were going to succeed.

And then, of course, you know, one of the helicopters crashes, one of the Blackhawks crashes during the raid. They managed to kill bin Laden successfully, but it's, you know, I mean, they didn't know. There was no way to know. And one of the things that happens when you have moments like this is that You tell history with the benefit of hindsight. Of course, they were going to succeed.

And then, of course, you know, one of the helicopters crashes, one of the Blackhawks crashes during the raid. They managed to kill bin Laden successfully, but it's, you know, I mean, they didn't know. There was no way to know. And one of the things that happens when you have moments like this is that You tell history with the benefit of hindsight. Of course, they were going to succeed.

It's SEAL Team 6 on the CIA, right? But it could have gone very wrong. The Pakistan government might have noticed earlier and scrambled fighter jets. I mean, there's all these things. And I think when we encounter the stories of history, we know how they end. That's the area where if you write a book about World War II, it's impossible to inhabit a world where...

It's SEAL Team 6 on the CIA, right? But it could have gone very wrong. The Pakistan government might have noticed earlier and scrambled fighter jets. I mean, there's all these things. And I think when we encounter the stories of history, we know how they end. That's the area where if you write a book about World War II, it's impossible to inhabit a world where...

It's SEAL Team 6 on the CIA, right? But it could have gone very wrong. The Pakistan government might have noticed earlier and scrambled fighter jets. I mean, there's all these things. And I think when we encounter the stories of history, we know how they end. That's the area where if you write a book about World War II, it's impossible to inhabit a world where...

Where something else happens because we know what actually happened and forever our our sort of interpretation of events is biased by that what actually occurred. And we can never go back to that moment like Obama did on that fateful night where he genuinely didn't know what was happening.

Where something else happens because we know what actually happened and forever our our sort of interpretation of events is biased by that what actually occurred. And we can never go back to that moment like Obama did on that fateful night where he genuinely didn't know what was happening.

Where something else happens because we know what actually happened and forever our our sort of interpretation of events is biased by that what actually occurred. And we can never go back to that moment like Obama did on that fateful night where he genuinely didn't know what was happening.