If the Americans catch bin Laden, best case scenario for him is that he can die a martyr, therefore best case scenario for the Americans is they catch him alive, throw him in jail and let him rot - if he wants to die, he can commit a humiliating suicide. The Egyptians made a capital mistake back in the sixties when they hanged Qutb instead of just letting him rot in prison, and are still paying the price for it. Unfortunately, I don't think they'll be able to resist the pressure to execute him, but still a formal execution after a trial is better than killing him in a firefight.
For me there are really two options - killed while resisting capture or killed after a lengthy, high publicity trial. I think the first is vastly better option because either way he will be a martyr to extremists but at least with the former option you don't have a trial, which his supporters aren't going to recognise the validity of.
Putting him in prison for the rest of his days is debatable a better option, though one I would prefer but I think the chances of that happening are zero. Unless he were to die while awaiting trial of course... but then you are really going back to it being treated as one of the original two options anyway, in the eyes of his supporters.
*MySmiley*
Robert Graves "There is no money in poetry, but then there is no poetry in money, either."
Henning Mankell "We must defend the open society, because if we start locking our doors, if we let fear decide, the person who committed the act of terror will win"
Robert Graves "There is no money in poetry, but then there is no poetry in money, either."
Henning Mankell "We must defend the open society, because if we start locking our doors, if we let fear decide, the person who committed the act of terror will win"
AG Eric Holder evades questioning
- 17/03/2010 05:34:40 PM
616 Views
Why should he be read miranda rights?
- 17/03/2010 05:50:29 PM
394 Views
Why should location matter when dealing with a borderless threat like al-Qaeda? *NM*
- 17/03/2010 10:20:08 PM
156 Views
You'd rather he walk free on a technicality?
- 17/03/2010 11:28:30 PM
362 Views
Line 1
- 18/03/2010 07:14:56 AM
492 Views
Last I checked, al-Qaeda isn't a party to the Geneva Convention.
- 18/03/2010 09:16:15 AM
422 Views
That only means they are not entitled to its protections - in other words, they are fair game.
- 19/03/2010 10:25:50 PM
358 Views
Well, I guess it depends whether you want to try him, doesn't it?
- 19/03/2010 11:34:34 PM
337 Views
*shrugs*
- 17/03/2010 11:10:47 PM
366 Views
That doesn't seem very logical
- 18/03/2010 12:03:21 AM
447 Views
That is honest and it wouldn't be "dumb" (I assume you actually mean stupid, rather than mute)
- 18/03/2010 12:19:58 AM
412 Views
It is very possible
- 18/03/2010 02:12:21 AM
310 Views
Re: It is very possible
- 18/03/2010 02:31:59 AM
417 Views
You do remember "I do not recall" Gonzalez right? *NM*
- 18/03/2010 02:38:48 AM
148 Views
Actually not really, I was out of the country for almost his entire tenure
- 18/03/2010 02:41:13 AM
325 Views
Pretty much there was some political firings of Us Attorneys
- 18/03/2010 02:56:01 AM
364 Views
I remember a little of that
- 18/03/2010 03:16:27 AM
347 Views
Gonzales flat out lied to congress
- 18/03/2010 03:29:14 AM
333 Views
Seems he could answer the question without evasion or producing a soundbite
- 18/03/2010 04:12:04 AM
379 Views
I don't think I agree with that.
- 18/03/2010 02:04:48 PM
353 Views
Fair enough
- 18/03/2010 02:40:42 PM
347 Views
You guys are forgetting the intel aspect.
- 18/03/2010 09:40:53 PM
365 Views
do we know how much he actually knows?
- 18/03/2010 09:49:50 PM
339 Views
Kinda hard to find out if he knows anything if he's dead *NM*
- 18/03/2010 09:56:18 PM
161 Views
that was totally not my question 
- 19/03/2010 12:10:06 AM
336 Views
- 19/03/2010 12:10:06 AM
336 Views
Most people include congressmen/women don't understand Miranda rights,most people don't know the Law
- 18/03/2010 02:08:10 AM
445 Views
I can understand why he'd want to evade answering.
- 18/03/2010 03:23:04 AM
413 Views
I can understand why statesman would want to avoid painting himself into a corner.
- 29/03/2010 02:26:34 PM
297 Views