The mission:

They observed that residents of the compound burned their trash, instead of putting it out for collection, and concluded that the compound lacked a phone or an Internet connection. Kuwaiti and his brother came and went, but another man, living on the third floor, never left. When this third individual did venture outside, he stayed behind the compound’s walls. Some analysts speculated that the third man was bin Laden, and the agency dubbed him the Pacer.

The story is riveting, even if some of it may be speculative.

Operation Neptune’s Spear, as dramatic, effective, and incredible as the whole story is, was just one of thousands of operations run by US Special Forces every year — most of which are never reported.

This sums up why Obama & co. went with such a bold plan:

Special operations is about doing what’s not expected, and probably the least expected thing here was that a helicopter would come in, drop guys on the roof, and land in the yard.