"You get a bunch of elite troops, they force entry into a private residence inside another country and kill everyone in sight just in case they are armed? And thats OK is it?"

If all inside are considered to be enemy combatants YES most certainly, not one of them alive is worth one of ours dead.

As they obviously were not in the case of Osama bin Laden's pad in Abbotabad not everyone in the compound was killed.

"Wonder what they would be like in a hostage situation." - Guest Jon

Normally pretty good - it is a mission that they are trained for. One of the best has to be Operation Thunderbolt (Entebbe), one of the worst has to be Operation Eagle Claw (US Embassy Hostage rescue Tehran 1980) Recently the missions by both RAF/SAS/SBS to lift 150 civilians out of Libya went well. Given the choice between the uncertainty of getting my head sawn off for a video or the chance of me getting killed in an attempted rescue I'd yell come and get me boys every bloody time (Because at least in the latter scenario I'd be taking some of the bastards with me).