Re: bin Laden

Re: Bin Laden

“Justice has been done”

“Vengeance is mine saith the Lord”

“Of course it is all right to just kill him.  He had declared war on us”

“We have laws against assassination”

“Congress had not passed a law declaring war on al Queda”

“We should have taken him prisoner”

“We weren’t there in the compound, so we can’t judge what was done”

“He was a terribly evil man, so it was OK to kill him”

“But we decided that he was evil.  His followers didn’t think so.”

“He killed 3,000 of our citizens”

“Our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed thousands and thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis”

And I doubt if the discussion will stop anytime soon.  My own personal opinion is that I wish he could have been taken prisoner.  Then taken to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.  That would have been more appropriate than here because of the al Queda acts of terrorism world-wide.  There he would for sure have received justice.  But then, I thank God that I was not the one giving the orders, but I also thank God that someone who has courage and intelligence did.  When decisions are made that are made on thoughtful analysis and not on ideology, generally they are the correct ones.

As it is, I thank the stars for Mark Twain who once again, even though it was 100 years ago, came up with a very pithy quip which expresses my feelings exactly.  “I have never wished for the death of any man.  But I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”

The dangerous work has been done by some incredibly brave men.  Now the slogging, boring, but very necessary work begins of analyzing the anti-terrorism laws and procedures that were put in place by the Bush administration to ‘fight’ terrorism .  Were these laws and procedures necessary?  If so, are they still necessary?  The questions go on, but we must never let bin Laden win by losing our civil rights to the radical right-wing agenda of one-party rule – theirs.