RabidAlien
1st Lieutenant
Yes, we're the "civilized" nation here, and we should hold ourselves to a higher standard. However, if you've got a rabid dog, you don't feed him a biscuit and put him in a crate and take him to the vet to be put down. You'll probably be heading straight to the ER afterwards, yourself. The whole world acknowledged that OBL was behind the 9/11 attack on the US, as well as many other attacks on other countries around the world. Any one of those countries, due to the attacks planned by him, could lay claim to putting him on trial. But seriously, it would just be a show. He's guilty. Pakistan or Iraq might have found him "not guilty", but pretty much everybody else was going to send him to the chair. Or gallows. Or guillotine. Or frikkin-shark-with-frikkin-lasers-on-their-heads tank. With today's economy, I much prefer a bullet that might've cost $.50 to a multi-million dollar media circus, not to mention all of the other rabid dogs coming out of the woodwork to try to save him, or "we'll blow up one kindergarten playground somewhere in the world every hour until he's released" ultimatums...which I have no doubt that would have been followed through on. He's dead now. Did he defend himself? I dunno. I wasn't there. Did the victims in each and every one of the bombings that he masterminded have a chance to defend themselves? Nope. Has justice been served? Yep. Did we sink to their level? Honestly....I don't think so. My folks always taught me to just walk away from a fight, that if I ignored the bully they would go away. Yeah....doesn't work. Sometimes you just have to stand up and respond in the only way that they will recognize, and beat the living crap out of the bully. The difference between us and them, which makes us the "civilized" country, is that we don't continue to do that. We've drawn the line, and recognize that sometimes it has to be stepped over...but that you return to your side of the line as soon as possible.
ETA: by your own argument, that OBL had proxies do his work for him and therefore he committed no crimes within the US jurisdiction....well, since this is a WW2 forum, I can't recall a single instance where Hitler himself personally killed any US troops, or dropped any bombs on a British city, or pushed the button that lit the fires in Dachau's incinerators. He had proxies do it. Yamamoto didn't fire a single shot at Pearl Harbor. And the list goes on.
ETA: by your own argument, that OBL had proxies do his work for him and therefore he committed no crimes within the US jurisdiction....well, since this is a WW2 forum, I can't recall a single instance where Hitler himself personally killed any US troops, or dropped any bombs on a British city, or pushed the button that lit the fires in Dachau's incinerators. He had proxies do it. Yamamoto didn't fire a single shot at Pearl Harbor. And the list goes on.
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