The Nose: The Osama Bin Laden Sideshow
How are we processing the death of Osama Bin Laden?
More than I've said out loud, the Osama bin Laden sideshow that began last Sunday night has made me uncomfortable.
I'm kind of a freak for due process, even though I freely concede that a proper trial would have been a near-impossibility. On the other hand, there was Nuremberg, right?
The celebrations in New York and Washington D.C. seemed more appropriate for an NBA championship or a Super Bowl victory -- not our killing of a hated enemy.
And then came the collapse, piece by piece of the narrative. It wasn't a firefight. Bin Laden wasn't armed. He did not use a woman as a human shield. Even the "mansion" appears not to have been as lavish or expensive as the original reports.
Then came the argument that "torture worked" and the debate about whether to release the photos. And somehow, Osama bin Laden, who had faded to a bit player, came to dominate our nightmares for a few more days.
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Osama trial unwise
"However, a trial would've been a circus."
A circus would have been the least of it. Holding OBL in custody would have invited every radical group to take hostages and demand OBL's release. By negating that possibility, Obama precluded that threat.
E-mail from Kayla
I am upset by how United States of America has conducted itself. The training that soldiers undergo stressed that unarmed persons are not dangerous and to kill them on purpose is a violation of the Laws of War. If Bin Laden was not armed then there was no reason to shoot him and he should have been taken prisoner. I also wonder about rushing into someone's home with weapons and not expecting them to attempt to defend themselves. I wonder about the defininition of assassination. A week or two ago there were allegations that the UN forces in Libia were trying to assassinate Kadafe and they were denied because members of the UN have signed a treaty agreeing not to assassinate. I may not know all the details and perhaps the treaty specifies they may not assassinate sheads of state or some technicallity, but today I am ashamed to be a part of a country which targeted and killed a man who they ought to have put on trial. I am not saying that he should be alive and at large, but I am saying that a judge should have made the decision of a death sentance for his crime. If that were the case I would have been proud to be a part of a country which extends the rights it holds to be "self evident" to all human being, but now I feel like our constitution is something that we show children to instill patriotism in while our leader do what is convenient.
E-mail from Leo
I believe the 1030 pm announcement sunday night was made to screw donald trump And myself out of the last half hour of celebrity apprentice. Damm you Obama .. lol.. leo
E-mail from "Ben"
The jubilation over Osama's death is more akin to VJ Day as 9/11 was compared to Pearl Harbor.
Also, the Pakistanis begged us to announce the whole shebang ASAP so they could react int time for their news cycle. I heard that on Jim Lehrer's show...I forget which guest revealed it. Either a retired spook for great academic like Steve Coll.
E-mail from Rick
While I agree with you that they used serious "spin" to sell the story, Hitler is not a good comparison. There were many plots to assassinate Hitler on both sides of the Atlantic and if he had been killed in that way, you can be sure there would have been much more celebrating than we saw Sunday night.
E-mail from Wendy
I just had the thought that (with the possible exception of Canada), no other country, in our position of having eliminated a terrorist of Bin Laden's notoriety, would even be having this conversation. Whether that makes us better or worse, morally speaking, I don't know. But the United States has a very public tendency to analyze ourselves to pieces.
E-mail from David
Colin: I agree with you...blasting an unarmed guy is, well, not American. However, a trial would've been a circus.
More importantly, I think our reaction stems from our liberal instincts.
David
Lovely Downtown West Hartford
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