The use of the word "narrative" to describe a sequence of facts relayed by political operatives -- it has been often used by Jay Carney, the President's Press Secretary in connection with the bin Laden raid -- has to stop. Are they fools? Don't they know that when the rest of us hear the word "narrative" we think "story" or "fiction" or "made-up plot"? They should always just say, here are the facts as we know them right now, period. Just the facts, ma'am, in other words.
Anyway, the "narrative" for the bin Laden raid has been under some scrutiny for days now, and appears to have changed significantly. Where initially bin Laden was an armed participant in a 40-minute firefight, it now appears that he was never armed, and that the firefight was very brief. There is also at least some suggestions that he was captured, or else could have been captured, and was shot anyway, perhaps afterwards.
I guess I won't lose sleep over it, one way or another, but it sure makes hypocrites out of all the liberals who claimed we needed to give due process rights to al Qaeda fighters we captured and afford them all of the rights they would get as uniformed combatants for a sovereign enemy under the Geneva Conventions.
Here is a good timeline from Fox News that summarizes the evolving understanding of the facts about the raid -- a "narrative" about the "narrative," if you will.
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