So then you might find that that individual is living in the relative lap of luxury in a nice part of town near a military academy or some such place. And then when you do track the dude down, and engage in a bold operation to smoke him out and waste him, that beneficiary nation state may look complicit in actually hiding him all these long years.
And then said beneficiary kind of ends up with egg on their complicit faces. Or something like that. And well if that nation state is a teeming nation bulging with people and nuclear arms, well, a little humiliation goes a long way, with who knows what kind of consequences.
Still, in retrospect, that little SEAL operation looks pretty slick and successful. And it was a really risky, gutsy move that could have easily gone seriously wrong with all kinds of unforeseen consequences. And the guy who made the call now looks like a smart, cool operator who rolled the dice and came up smelling like roses.
Sometimes one man's fall can be another man's rise.
