The Commander-in-Chief sent a team of operatives to terminate a terrorist leader hiding in a mansion in an up-scale neighborhood. The operatives did not meet strong resistance except for a brave woman, who tried to shield the wanted man. They shot the woman’s leg and killed their unarmed target with bullets to the head and chest.

Members of the American Special Forces team who killed Osama bin Laden in Abbotabad in Pakistan last May 1 were hailed as heroes. Officials called the raid one of the greatest feats in recent years.

Many people were unimpressed. Others consider the woman’s actions in the face of considerable odds more heroic.

If we sent our own police operatives, would they have captured bin Laden instead, finding him unarmed? Our policemen will be hailed as heroes, too, because the chances of bin Laden getting killed is big. When our police operatives respond to a hostage situation, for example, they shoot the hostage taker and the hostage.

If the Americans consider it heroic to kill an unarmed man, we have many heroes in our police force. Sometimes, some operatives show some weakness, but killing an unarmed man is not one of them.

In a recent case, many people’s jaw dropped in awe. “If we sent them to Pakistan ahead of the Americans, they would have changed the course of history,” one observer said.

A precinct commander sent his operatives to respond to a report of a robbery in Better Living Village in Paranaque last week. Eyewitnesses said a man robbed at gun point businessman Edwin Esguerra when he entered his car after he withdrew money from the bank.

The thief shot Esguerra in the elbow when he panicked and sped off. A police team arrived at the scene in a matter of minutes.

But what did the gallant operatives do? They pursued Esguerra all the way to the Paranaque Medical Doctors Hospital where the wounded man sought treatment. We can imagine Esguerra telling the operatives, “Hey, do I look like a thief?”

The unidentified thief, meanwhile, fled on foot, eyewitnesses said.

In Pakistan, where Bin Laden was killed in the Bilal suburb nestled in the pine-dotted hills of the well-off garrison town of Abbotabad, residents could not imagine that the world’s most wanted terrorist, who has a $25- million price on his head, had been hiding in their neighborhood. Conspiracy theories raced like wildfire through the quiet Pakistani town.

Residents asked such question as: “If he was killed why don’t they show his body?” Also: “The Americans might have killed him somewhere else — in Afghanistan —and played a Hollywood-like stunt to defame our country.”

An American official said US forces administered Muslim religious rites for bin Laden on an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea before the body was eased overboard for a watery burial in a weighted bag.

We sought the opinion of our own police operatives. They have experience in various types of operation against rebel hit squads, motorcycle-riding assassins, and an army of enforcers of drug and gambling lords.

A veteran police sergeant said he could not understand why bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world accused of killing 3,000 Americans, was not tightly guarded. Helicopters dropped a US Navy Seal team into the compound, and they found bin Laden surrounded by women and children.

The set-up in the bin Laden hideout was perfect for our type of operation, the police sergeant said. Operatives will surround the house. A police officer, using a loudspeaker, will demand bin Laden’s surrender. “Sumuko ka na. Mga pulis kami.”

Their methods might not be as dramatic as what US President Barack Obama expected, but the outcome would be the same. When our police use the loudspeaker they are ready to shoot.

Diplomats say the incursion of US forces into Pakistan showed the American tendency to violate sovereignty of other countries for convenience. They operate much like our own police force. Get in, get it, and get out.

The US Navy Seals got bin Laden despite the heroic resistance by his woman. Obama called the Seals his heroes. Osama, who is known to have six wives, would disagree. He would call his woman his heroine.