This week’s New Yorker has a riveting account by freelance journalist Nicholas Schmidle of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Reading it, I was reminded of this hilarious satirical video which has “The Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden” bragging to all the patrons of a San Diego bar about his achievement. It looks as if some of the participants in the raid–or at least those involved in its planning–talked to Schmidle.

I don’t necessarily think there is anything wrong with that–not much in the way of operational details seems to have been compromised in this article, at least not beyond what has already been reported. The only real news nugget is the special operators had made previous, unreported forays into Pakistan; but that should hardly come as a shock, given the already extensive reporting about another form of U.S. special operations in Pakistan–namely, the Predator strikes. Still, the Special Operations community is undoubtedly guilty of hypocrisy: they pull a tight blanket of secrecy around their operations but peel it back when they have an especially notable success to publicize.

On balance, I think being forthcoming makes sense in this case because it is an inspirational tale and one that should put fear into our enemies. Note especially Schmidle’s reporting (which confirms prior reports) that bin Laden was unarmed when he was killed; a SEAL shot him twice, once in the chest, once in the head, because as one Special Operations officer told him, “There was never any question of detaining or capturing him–it wasn’t a split second decision. No one wanted detainees.” Assuming that’s accurate, that is the kind of ruthlessness I believe most of the world can applaud, or at least respect–thus heightening our deterrence against terrorists and other foes.

But revealing operational details in the present instance will make it harder for the Special Operators to make a principled argument in the future to keep quiet information about other operations–including those that are not so successful.