Should we have kept Bin Laden alive?

[FarLeftFist]

Don't get me wrong, this NY'er is happy to see him gone, but with the current terror threats maybe if we somehow kept him alive we could use killing him as blackmail to thwart any future terror attacks.

No terrorist wants to be responsible for being the one that caused us to kill their leader b/c they pulled off a terrorist attack. We could have threatened his execution if terrorist attempts were made.

On the other hand if he had to be killed when he was then so be it. The safety of our troops comes first and destiny played it's hand.

[Taverner]

1. I think so. Tried and convicted.

But its not like a shed a tear for him when he became fish food

[Maccagirl]

2. IMHO there would have been terror threats regardless.

Is anyone really surprised that the talk of threats is amped up this weekend?

[FarLeftFist]

14. True, but I can't imagine them trying a rescue mission on our soil to free him.

Wasn't he their holy leader?

[razorman]

3. What makes you think we haven't?

I'm joking, of course. Just thought I'd add a little spark to the next truther/birther-type conspiracy theory.

[coalition_unwilling]

4. The first sentence of this OP shows exactly how far our country has slipped into

pure savagery: ". . . if we somehow kept him alive we could use killing him as blackmail to thwart any future terror attacks."

Yeah, that's a real good reason to keep someone alive, rather than just execute them extra-judicially (as was the case here). At least by keeping the person alive, we can use him or her as a hostage. How 10th Century. As Pogo had it, we have truly met the enemy and it is us.

USA! USA! USA!

:sarcasm:

[FarLeftFist]

12. Bin Laden isn't just anybody. And that IS a real good reason to keep someone alive.

Actually, I couldn't think of a better reason to do this besides the safety of our country. Can you name a better reason to have kept him alive?

[coalition_unwilling]

16. Yeah, it's a quaint and obsolete notion embodied in the

14th amendment (and Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence going back to Henry VIII) called "due process". You might check it out sometime.

[FarLeftFist]

18. I never said I was against a trial. A trial would mean he's alive. That's kinda my point.

But whether we carried out an actual execution or not, the blackmail aspect could have worked being he would have been found guilty and being held by America. Our opposition wouldn't have to know the truth.

[coalition_unwilling]

22. Look, we managed to have trials for leading Nazi and Japanese figures whose

crimes were far worse than what OBL could ever dream of. We didn't just summarily execute leading Nazi and Japanese figures because it was expedient to do so.

By the same token, the reason to keep OBL alive to face due process was NOT for OBL's sake or the sake of OBL's followers, nor was it to use OBL as some sort of hostage to deter other attacks; keeping OBL alive was for our sake so that we could know with certainty that we aspire to a higher standard of civilization (called variously 'due process' or 'the rule of law') and not pure atavistic savagery.

[gratuitous]

19. "Due process" - So 20th Century

Now that we're the World's Last Super Power, we get to do whatever we want, and complain long and loud when others appropriate means that are reserved only for us. If the sequelae weren't so deadly for so many, it would be amusing in the way it's amusing whenever the Yankees or the Lakers complain about bad calls.

[MineralMan]

5. I suspect that keeping him alive and attempting to use him

as blackmail would actually increase the attacks. Conventional thinking doesn't really apply to religious and political fanatics. Since suicide bombings are part of the strategy used by this group, I can't imagine that they'd be all that concerned with Bin Laden's safety.

[originalpckelly]

8. Yeah, I agree.

We should have just disappeared him. He's about the only guy. Who knows if any attacks that will come over this weekend will be caused by our foolish actions.

[FarLeftFist]

13. But these people worship him. Maybe killing him will make them want revenge.

Again, I'm happy he's gone.

[originalpckelly]

6. We became like the ruthless thugs who did this to us.

But then, we were already pretty ruthless, so it wasn't much of a step down.

[Rex]

7. We should have hauled his ass to the Hague imo.

Show the world we still believe in the Rule of Law.

[originalpckelly]

9. Yeah, al-Qaeda is not a nation.

But whatev.

[Rex]

11. So. Does everyone that commits crime have to be a nation?

I was talking about ONE MAN - OBL, but whateva. Don't let those facts get in your way of not understanding my post. :eyes:

[Shagbark Hickory]

10. He's not alive?

Oh that's right. They said he was killed in self defense. (lie)
Then he was "buried at sea"

[Octafish]

15. Alive and he can talk. Dead, and he joins Kenny Lay.

In a manner of speaking.

[raouldukelives]

17. +1

[Ohio Joe]

20. Kept him alive so we could threaten to kill him?

WTF?

[JoePhilly]

21. This nonsense again.

Look, just recently, we lost about 30 troops in a helicopter crash.

The mission to get OBL was even more risky.

So when you find him, if he blinks funny, he dies.

And then you extract the team to safety.