bin Laden not armed - was it right to shoot him anyways?

[Winged Victory]

They should've netted him like a fish, used flash-bangs, nailed him with beanbag launchers, pepper sprayed his butt, and applied non-lethal tasers.

Bin Laden was alone? Otherwise, it would be damn sporting of the others in the compound to simply step out of the way while the SEALS tasered him. You wanted him alive as a martyr and rallying cry for further recruitment to jihad in an American jail? The man was a self declared enemy of the state and a continuing danger to all of us. He wasn't some kid out on a joyride who got scared and fled from the local police. Killing him saved lives. He wouldn't have been a lesson of how we rose above. The fact that Obama refused to order the bombing of the compound and possibly costing civilian lives already shows that. The fact that he was given a proper burial shows that.

No. I'm a tree hugging, gay marriage touting save the whales and puppies liberal and YES, they needed to kill him. It was necessary. Sorry, dude, but consider the first tomato thrown. You are being extraordinarily naive. Bin Laden in a jail alive posed far more of a threat. Now he's been made nothing. And it was right.

Very well-put. And as another tree-hugging liberal, I couldn't have agreed with you more.

 

[Whoa Nellie]

New details are emerging that apparently bin Laden wasn't even armed when he was shot right in the head. Does this change your opinion on how he was killed?

MSNBC

WASHINGTON — Osama bin Laden was not armed when a U.S. Navy SEAL raiding party confronted him during an assault on his compound in Pakistan, the White House said Tuesday. White House press secretary Jay Carney acknowledged that bin Laden did not have a weapon even though administration officials have said that bin Laden resisted during the 40-minute raid. Bin Laden was shot in the head and in the chest during the encounter.

Nope. Long as he's still fish food I'm still good with it.

I agree with Admiral2 on this. I'm still fine and dandy with it.

 

[Trekker4747]

He wasn't some teenage punk trying to steal $20 from a gas-station with nothing but threat and then gunned down by trigger-happy policemen.

Osama was a terrorist responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people across the globe, he was a soldier in a war. So I couldn't care less if he was "armed" or not he got what was coming to him.

 

[Avalon]

^ I think he meant 'arms' as in 'limbs'.

Ah. Geez. *slaps forehead*

Thanks, MLB. I should have caught that.

 

[Gaseous Anomaly]

No.

I know I'm going to be pelted with rotten tomatoes for believing this; but the U.S. "Special Op's" move was a poorly chosen method of apprehending Bin Laden.

This was never about apprehending him.

I said it elsewhere. If he could have been captured, he would of been (and possibly still reported as killed to avoid a legal circus and nutcases coming out of the woodwork for his release).

As for the methods of his death, does anyone really care? He wasn't coming out alive either way (in the long run) and he had it coming.

I think they said He was upstairs with a woman and the people downstairs had already been taken out....Considering the high priority of the hit, I'm sure any resistance whatsoever, weapon or not, was considered enough provocation to shoot.

If the SEALs were to bring him back it would have put every westerner in the Middle East or around the world as targets to negotiate a release of bin Laden. Once the US said no, each and every prisoner would then be killed. Now Al Qaeda knows that they will never get him back. Yes we are still at risk but his release is no longer a factor.

 

[1001001]

No. I'm a tree hugging, gay marriage touting save the whales and puppies liberal and YES, they needed to kill him. It was necessary.

Me too.

And I agree. This was the best solution.

And if I can see it, I think most people can see it....

 

[scottydog]

Was it right to shoot OBL? Yes. Just wish it had happened 9 and 1/2 years earlier.

 

[bigdaddy]

Was it right to shoot OBL? Yes. Just wish it had happened 9 and 1/2 years earlier.

I wish it was 20 years earlier and then we could have stopped 9-11, the 1993 WTC attack, the bombing of the USS Cole, and numerous other attacks.

 

[Trekker4747]

I wish it happened 55 years ago with an abortion.

 

[scottydog]

Was it right to shoot OBL? Yes. Just wish it had happened 9 and 1/2 years earlier.

I wish it was 20 years earlier and then we could have stopped 9-11, the 1993 WTC attack, the bombing of the USS Cole, and numerous other attacks.

Good point.

 

[Alpha Romeo]

No.

I know I'm going to be pelted with rotten tomatoes for believing this; but the U.S. "Special Op's" move was a poorly chosen method of apprehending Bin Laden.

A move that sets no lesson for future generations we preach to about "true justice" being about setting a higher standard for ourselves.

They should've netted him like a fish, used flash-bangs, nailed him with beanbag launchers, pepper sprayed his butt, and applied non-lethal tasers.

Then brought him back to the nearest Allied Base, gave him a lawyer, and brought him up on charges at The Hague to face trial for Crimes Against Humanity when he woke up with the nastiest headache, broken leg or two, and few broken ribs, et cetera but alive to face the consequences of his actions.

That way, neither he nor his descendants or his followers can scream "human rights abuses" as in the Camp X-Ray situation, we should've followed regulations to the letter, left him alive to say his peace, and effectively blow out his candle about how we "are at war with Islam" and possibly saved the woman used as a human shield her moments of deadly fear.

Unless the U.S.A. has something to hide, that will come back to bite us all in the ass somewhere down the road?

Possibly gave the tard a spot on Jerry Springer and let the audience pick him apart right before the "final thought" segment?

We could've exposed him as the coward Bin Laden was. and let the world laugh at him and jeer at him. Let him see that his influence has officially died and let him spend the rest of his life raging away in his dog-cage sized jail cell somewhere "classified" in Syria.

Ah the Ivory Tower. What makes you think you know more about it than the president of the united states and his advisers? Please...

 

[Nowhere Man]

ThisNormally I would, but not this time. There are reports of torture bieng used to find him, Guantamino is still open, the economy is still bad, but really, I don't care about any of that as far as OBL is concerned.

 

[SG-17]

Of course it was right to shoot him. For starters he was an enemy general, he was a military target and was taken out as such. Secondly Pakistan was hiding him, they are damned lucky that all we did was sent in a SEAL team to take him out. We have every right to kick Pakistan in the ass for harboring the most wanted man in the world.

 

[Amaris]

Once you accept the essential moral validity of sending an assassination squad into a sovereign country's territory, the little detail of whether the target happens to be armed or not is a mere trifle. The moral bottleneck, so it speak, is already navigated before you get to that stage.

I didn't have a problem with assassinating Bin Laden before I knew he was unarmed, so I don't now that I know he was unarmed. He signed his own death warrant when he declared war on the West and waged it through force of arms.

Exactly.

Yeah, hm... was Kirk right to kill Nero in Star Trek?

Yes, he was.

 

[Data Holmes]

Yes.

Next question please.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

New details are emerging that apparently bin Laden wasn't even armed when he was shot right in the head. Does this change your opinion on how he was killed?

As opposed to what, blowing up the whole compound with a missile attack from a Predator drone, killing everyone there, and not being sure if we actually got him? He's the official leader of a stateless paramilitary/criminal organization and is a legitimate target. Is it not better to go in and make sure we got the right guy and limit casualties to others?

Bin Laden is the symbolic head of al Qaeda, killing him demoralizes them and serves as a symbolic victory in a way that capturing him would not. It serves as a message to other al Qaeda leaders that if they step up we'll take you out too.

They're already concerned about retaliatory attacks as it is. If he had been alive and in prison the motivation to attack to try and force his release would be even greater. It could also result in the taking and execution of hostages to try and force his release.

He's acknowledged his part in numerous terrorist attacks himself publicly. There's no question of innocence or need for a trial which would be a foregone conclusion.

Even though they expected him to be killed and were authorized to do so, they left open the possibility of capture if he had immediately thrown up his hands, but him, his family, and followers chose to resist instead. The fact that he didn't personally have a gun changes nothing.

ThisNormally I would, but not this time. There are reports of torture bieng used to find him...

That's what it's being spun as by those who want to see the enhanced interrogation/torture vindicated, but it's not the truth. While some of the people who gave up the courier that eventually led to bin Laden's death were waterboarded or exposed to humiliating techniques beforehand, none of them gave up the names while the torture/enhanced interrogation was happening.

Plus, it took years of piecing together little bits of pieces of the information they gave, tracking the courier, and waiting for him to screw up and make a call from inside the compound to finally get bin Laden.

Former Officials Credit Standard Interrogation Techniques

* [Khalid Sheikh] Mohammed did not reveal the names while being subjected to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, former officials said. He identified them many months later under standard interrogation. 6

* A former US National Security official: It was not until later, after waterboarding was suspended because it and other harsh techniques became heatedly debated, that Mohammed told interrogators about the existence of a courier particularly close to bin Laden, a fragmentary tip that touched off a years-long manhunt that ended in bin Laden’s death at the hands of U.S. special forces on Sunday.7

* “They waterboarded KSM (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) 183 times and he still didn’t give the guy up,” said one former U.S. counterterrorism official who asked not to be identified. “Come on. And you want to tell me that enhanced interrogation techniques worked?” 8

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2011/05/03/fact-sheet-torture-did-not-reveal-bin-ladens-whereabouts/

 

[Amaris]

No.

I know I'm going to be pelted with rotten tomatoes for believing this; but the U.S. "Special Op's" move was a poorly chosen method of apprehending Bin Laden.

A move that sets no lesson for future generations we preach to about "true justice" being about setting a higher standard for ourselves.

They should've netted him like a fish, used flash-bangs, nailed him with beanbag launchers, pepper sprayed his butt, and applied non-lethal tasers.

Then brought him back to the nearest Allied Base, gave him a lawyer, and brought him up on charges at The Hague to face trial for Crimes Against Humanity when he woke up with the nastiest headache, broken leg or two, and few broken ribs, et cetera but alive to face the consequences of his actions.

That way, neither he nor his descendants or his followers can scream "human rights abuses" as in the Camp X-Ray situation, we should've followed regulations to the letter, left him alive to say his peace, and effectively blow out his candle about how we "are at war with Islam" and possibly saved the woman used as a human shield her moments of deadly fear.

Unless the U.S.A. has something to hide, that will come back to bite us all in the ass somewhere down the road?

Possibly gave the tard a spot on Jerry Springer and let the audience pick him apart right before the "final thought" segment?

We could've exposed him as the coward Bin Laden was. and let the world laugh at him and jeer at him. Let him see that his influence has officially died and let him spend the rest of his life raging away in his dog-cage sized jail cell somewhere "classified" in Syria.

No. In this instance, death was the surest way to killing the momentum a trial and circus would have generated, and it would have been a circus. This was the best method when everything is considered.

 

[Gil T.Azell]

... Perhaps the Navy Seals shot him twice to prevent escape.

and in doing so they created a new drink according to a friend of mine
A Bin Laden,
2 shots and a splash of water!!

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGTrWlzK3Ho[/yt]

^ I agree 110% if they taken him alive his capture would be used as a ploy/plot by terrorist organisations , "free him or else," and they blow other places up.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Even putting aside the notion of justice, I think he was just too big a figure to take prisoner.

A captured Osama bin Laden means a hostage situation within weeks. We may have threats of reprisals now, but hostages abroad would have been a certainty.

 

[Aragorn]

New details are emerging that apparently bin Laden wasn't even armed when he was shot right in the head.

[Clint Eastwood] "He should've armed himself." [/Clint Eastwood]