So the Navy Seal that pulled the trigger is a war criminal. He should be brought to justice.

Or...

The president ordered this directly as an assassination.

Which one is the war criminal? Perhaps both? Doesn't every soldier have a duty to disobey immoral orders, like killing unarmed men in their nightgowns?

bin laden was killed because bringing him to justice the proper way was "inconvenient". We should all hope that we never become "inconvenient".

5/3/2011 5:44:56 PM

lock suspend terminate

Can we just put smc and pryderi on the same insta lock list for this shit they pass of as worthy of debate?

5/3/2011 5:50:45 PM

So you don't have an answer for me? Let's discuss this. It makes me angry. I don't like the direction our country is heading. Tell me I'm wrong. Reassure me that assassinations are the status quo now, and only very bad people get killed without trial.

Educate me. Is pakistan even considered to be part of a warzone? Could the american government just go and kill Hugo Chavez because he's a real pain in the ass? What threshold must be crossed for it to be considered an international crime?

[Edited on May 3, 2011 at 5:56 PM. Reason : .]

5/3/2011 5:53:07 PM

"ooo this is going to be a good one *rubs hands*"

5/3/2011 6:27:58 PM

5/3/2011 6:27:59 PM

Quote :

"Reassure me that assassinations are the status quo now, and only very bad people get killed without trial."

The executive order prohibiting assassinations was lifted. If I recall correctly, Clinton rescinded it specifically to deal with OBL, but I could be wrong.

This is all about whether you deal with terrorism on a war footing or a crime footing. On this, the world (and international law) is still undecided. Probably our entry into Pakistan was illegal, but I'd be shocked if they press the matter. If they're upset at all, it's because the dude was chilling in their backyard all this time, and now they look like assholes.

International law is, as I say, still in development on issues like this. To some extent, until we can upgrade our agreements it will probably continue to work along the lines of "It's illegal if a lot of people have a problem with it." No countries seem to take serious issue with us eliminating OBL. A number of countries would flip out if we killed Hugo Chavez or Castro. Unfortunately I don't have a really clear threshold for you.

And it's important to realize that bringing him to trial wasn't just inconvenient, it was dangerous. Dangerous immediately to the soldiers involved, because a capture operation is inherently more difficult and risky. Dangerous in the long term, because every day you keep him alive he's able to spew his bullshit while assholes try to free him and disrupt proceedings.

Then you have the fact that "bringing him to justice" for trial would have been as illegal as shooting him was. As I said, going into Pakistan to grab him was probably against the law. Certainly we'd have no jurisdiction there even if they allowed us in. Asking Pakistan to arrest and extradite him is a sure recipe for his escape -- clearly he had friends in the Pak. government or military if he was able to live in the middle of a garrison town in a huge, obvious complex.

So what are we to do? It's illegal to shoot him, it's illegal to arrest him, but clearly we've got to do one or the other. The route we picked was safer, so I say, fine.

5/3/2011 6:45:15 PM