The Anonymous Widower

Execution Is Not Justice

It would now appear that the death of Osama bin Laden was a deliberate execution under the orders of Barack Obama. It also appears that it might have been possible to bring the evil Bin Laden out alive, as he was unarmed.

As I have said before he should have stood trial for his heinous crimes in The Hague. 

Read this article entitled “Bin Laden’s summary execution maketh the man, martyr and myth”,  from the Sydney Morning Herald. It makes a lot of forceful points.  Here’s an extract.

The US resembles the land of the munchkins as it celebrates the death of the wicked witch of the East. The joy is understandable but, to many outsiders, unattractive. It endorses what looks increasingly like a cold-blooded assassination ordered by a president who, as a former law professor, knows the absurdity of his statement that “justice was done”.

Amoral diplomats and triumphant politicians join in applauding the summary execution of Osama bin Laden because they claim that real justice – arrest, trial and sentence – would have been too difficult in the case of public enemy No. 1. But should it not at least have been attempted?

This execution might bring closure and even vengeance to many, but it could turn out to be just a small victory in the struggle to defeat Al Qaeda. After all the death of people like Bobby Sands, was very good for recruitment to the IRA.

It was Churchill who said.

Battles are won by slaughter and manoeuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in manoeuver, the less he demands in slaughter.

Barack Obama is no great Commander-in-Chief, but he might just have done enough to win the next Presidential election.

May 4, 2011 - Posted by | News | , , , , , ,

8 Comments »

  1. We should not forget that it was Roosevelt who insisted on trials for the senior Nazis at the end of the war. Churchill was one of those who just wanted to execute them!

    Comment by John | May 4, 2011 | Reply

  2. But then the US hadn’t been bombed by the Nazis. I think now, we would have all gone for trial.

    Comment by AnonW | May 4, 2011 | Reply

  3. I cannot find the words to describe how I feel about this. If a large group of highly trained men had been ordered by a Middle Eastern leader to go and execute without trial a unarmed man in his home and kill members of his family, and remove the body and dispose of it Western nations would rightly be outraged.

    But people are dancing in the street when it is the other way around!

    Comment by liz | May 4, 2011 | Reply

  4. As you say, an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. Violence escalates. I know a lot about Islam and know many Muslims, mostly women. The great fear of ordinary Muslim parents is that their sons will become radicalised. I fear that the execution of OBL will make radicalisation an attractive proposition to more young Muslim men.

    I can recommend an excellent book entitled “The Islamist” by Ed Hussain which talks about radicalisation. He was radicalised, but came out of it.

    For me as well, because I am a Christian, and Barak Obama openly states he is a Christian, there is an extra feeling which I cant find the words to name either, around the fact that he is rejoicing in the death of a man killed on his orders.

    Comment by liz | May 4, 2011 | Reply

    • There is only one excuse for killing. It was once put by Ludovic Kennedy, who was very anti-death penalty, that if he came across say an obvious robber shooting dead a security guard or policeman and the only way he could stop it, was to run the robber over, then he would do it. But even police firearms rules are tighter than that.

      But then America has a history of shooting first and asking questions afterwards.

      I’m sure we’re not whiter than white in our history, either, but if you read the history of something like the SAS, they were often clever rather than violent.

      Comment by AnonW | May 4, 2011 | Reply

  5. I am sure we are a fairly dark shade of grey, BUT I really dont think there is anything like this hidden in UK past. I certainly hope not.

    Comment by liz | May 4, 2011 | Reply

  6. Some people are comparing this to the SAS operation which ended the Iranian embassy siege. But I really dont see the comparison. The embassy was in UK, they were holding UK hostages, and they didnt go in to deliberately kill people.

    Comment by liz | May 4, 2011 | Reply


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