Thank you for that, Capetonian.
That "Green Leader" raid was all about civil aviation. It was a response to barbarism against civil aviation. And even during its execution it was ensuring the safety of local civil aviation (note the question at one stage from Lusaka ATC: "I hope you are ensuring the safety of my civilian air traffic", and they were with their advice...). I don't care if it was 'unopposed', it was effective... and that's that!
Likewise the raid to nail Bin Laden was also a response to barbarism against civil aviation and has to go alongside the "Green Leader" raid in that respect.
I also had a cheer at Gaddaffi's demise, again due to his involvement in barbarism against civil aviation.
(Now I won't be listening to any arguments about civil airliners that have been shot down through 'mistaken identities' being brought in here: the three incidents that I have mentioned above were all the deliberate targetting of civil airliners, because they were civil airliners. And that is barbaric.)
The manner in which "Green Leader" read out his initial communication to Lusaka tower, and his (and his colleagues') subsequent communications, showed some decency towards civilians that none of those barbarians ever did... There are a lot of us who have never met him who will remember him for it.