Bin Laden Executed by Obama

If the CNN news report is accurate, then the operation had the intent of killing bin Laden, not taking him alive. There could not have been much if any resistance from the 4 people in the compound, and bin Laden, we are told, was shot twice in the head. Since Obama had to have approved this operation, I conceive that he shot bin Laden at close range twice in the head. I conceive that he murdered bin Laden. I personally disapprove of this strongly, if he could have been taken alive. On personal religious grounds, I no longer believe in capital punishment. Still less do I believe in vengeance and revenge by execution taken without any attempt at justice. Justice is not revenge in my moral book. It is not execution without trial. The truth of the past has not been served by a gangland-style execution. There is much now that cannot be known. In the future, if someone executes a public figure, or even a non-public figure, without trial and because he and he alone has what he conceives to be private information about that person’s guilt, what can be said against the argument that Obama did it in the case of bin Laden? What kind of moral advertising and example does that set? A very bad one, I’d say. Already we hear calls to do the same to Gaddafi, which shows how these precedents work. States do not act morally. They never have. Bin Laden didn’t act morally. That was his business. But our President and what he does is our business. I feel ashamed by this episode, not joyful. The policy of our government assassinating people, even American citizens, of their choosing is part and parcel of this. Since that is official policy, it is no wonder that Obama doesn’t mind executing bin Laden who is not a citizen.

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1:01 pm on May 2, 2011