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Obama: let's nail bin Laden, but let's be nice about it
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.

'First of all, I think there is an executive order out on Osama bin Laden's head,' Obama said at a news conference. 'And if I'm president, and we have the opportunity to capture him, we may not be able to capture him alive.'

He said he wouldn't discuss what approach he would take to bring bin Laden to justice if he were apprehended. But he said the Nuremberg trials for the prosecution of Nazi leaders are an inspiration because the victors acted to advance universal principles and set a tone for the creation of an international order.
After which, we strung the bastards up--and we weren't gentle about it, either.
'What would be important would be for us to do it in a way that allows the entire world to understand the murderous acts that he's engaged in and not to make him into a martyr, and to assure that the United States government is abiding by basic conventions that would strengthen our hand in the broader battle against terrorism,' Obama said.


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 2008-06-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=242134