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| Obama: let's nail bin Laden, but let's be nice about it |
| 2008-06-19 |
| Jim Geraghty, 'Campaign Spot' @ National Review Obama has a secret plan to kill Osama bin Laden that somehow doesn't make him a martyr. WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday he would bring Osama bin Laden to justice in a way that wouldn't allow the terrorist mastermind to become a martyr, but he may be killed if the U.S. government finds him. A couple reactions: 1) On our list of concerns regarding Osama bin Laden, how high is, 'if we kill him, he'll be seen as a martyr' on the list? Has the 'martyrdom' of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Abu Laith al Libi, Mohammed Atef, and Abu Hamza Rabia really been that energizing for al-Qaeda? Don't we want to kill these guys? Isn't that the point of dropping bombs on them and sending Special Forces after them? I suspect it's not a 'concern,' it's more of a pretext for not invoking the death penalty because, eeeww, the death penalty is, like, yucky. One unintended (I hope it's unintended!) consequence of this kind of thinking is that while we're perfectly willing to kill off the low-level cannon fodder, the people who actually run the terror networks become 'off limits.' I think that's exactly backwards. I think it's much more effective to summarily kill off the bosses and at least hold open the possibility of mercy for the foot soldiers (if they surrender peacably, of course). 2) Does the world really not 'understand the murderous acts that he's engaged in'? Well, certain dark corners of the world appear not to. Would anyone who was unpersuaded by the video of him bragging about 9/11 -- and the numerous subsequent videotape and audiotapes of him taking credit for the attacks -- be persuaded by a trial? 3) Is the world truly worried about the U.S. might not 'abide by basic conventions' if it captures Osama bin Laden? 3a) If there's any country that would openly stand up for bin Laden's due process rights, are they anyone we should be taking seriously? 4) How many Americans would object to the waterboarding of Osama bin Laden? 5) If the moment he was brought to a U.S. base, a U.S. soldier -- or better yet, the President of the United States -- walked up to bin Laden and raised a gun and executed him right then and there, would the world complain about the lack of a trial? The UN would, but who cares what they think? How many Americans would complain? I can think of a couple or three places (here and here and here) one could find some. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #6 Remember now, its IRAN + MILITANT GROUPS, etc. that are driving to nuclearize > Pragmatically, IMO the death or capture of Osama Bin Laden per se, while a serious blow to Radical Islam and its Jihad, may not affect anything in the LT as per ENDING THE ISLAMIST JIHAD OR THE US-ISLAMIST WOT. THere's ZAWI and Osama's other cohorts and underlings to consdier, + Osama, etal had already given many indics or inferences on the MSM-NET that the Islamist Jihad matters more than their own lives. PRESUM THAT OSAMA WAS CAPTURED OR KILLED TODAY OR EOY 2008, EFFECT > NEITHER THE US NOR RADICAL ISLAM HAS WON OR LOST THE WOT. US DOMIN OF OWG-NWO includ ME IS NOT ASSURED DESPITE ENTRENCHMENT, WHILE IRAN + OBL's SUCCESSORS CONTINUE TO NUCLEARIZE DESTABILIZE AND EXPAND. Any and all pro-US and anti-US camps, includ the anti-US Lefties, Globalists, Secularists, + ENVIROS, etc, WILL NOT GET WHAT THEY WANT OR WILL BE SATISFIED. MSM > CAN'T RESOLVE GLOBAL WARMING + GLOBAL PEAK OIL, PEAK FOOD, PEAK WATER etc. WID THE COLD WAR "STATUS QUO" = GLOBAL FEDERALISM = ANTI-GLOBALISM STATE-REGIO SPECIFIC RIGHTIST/"FASCIST" NATIONALISM, CORRECT??? You can't have a OWG Navy = "Global Task Force" [MSM-Net News] widout a OWG-NWO = GLOBALLY-ORIENTED PAN-NATION EXTRA-NATION IDEO CENTER + SUPPORTING GOVT-INSTITUTIONAL BUREAUCRACIES/ HEIARCHIES, aka OVERSIGHT + OVERHEAD, CORRECT??? What plan does POTUS OBAMA = POTUS MCCAIN have for this kind of supra-milpol, geostrategic situation!? "PEACE AT WHAT PRICE", as the saying goes. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-06-19 21:24 |
| #5 Zhang, in pig entrails. No, no - we have to be nice about it. In fact, I think he should be buried on his side with his head facing Mecca. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2008-06-19 18:38 |
| #4 Zhang, in pig entrails. |
| Posted by: Rambler in California 2008-06-19 18:01 |
| #3 I think bin Laden should be sentenced to a nice live burial. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2008-06-19 17:53 |
| #2 So what are you going to do Obama, send bin Laden to anger management classes or sensitivity training or sit around and sing Kumbaya? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-06-19 17:38 |
| #1 I agree about the Prseident shooting on TV but it is essential that before doing it he reads the appropriate articles of the Geneva convention to the public. Vietnam war was lost on the execution of the VC "combatant" by that South Vietnamese colonel: it allowed the media to spin it as a war crime when in fact it was the VC "guy" who was a war criminal who had taken part in the murder of the families of South Vietnamese officers (not to mention that it is legal to shoot combaytan,tas out of uniform). |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-06-19 12:27 |