Is this what justice looks like? Al-Qaida boss Osama bin Laden was killed on Sunday in a secret military operation in Pakistan. Americans are celebrating, but there are serious doubts about whether the targeted killing was legal under international law and the laws of war. Info
US President Barack Obama gets precious few opportunities to announce a victory. So it's no wonder he chose grand words on Sunday night as the TV crews' spotlights shone upon him and he informed the nation about the deadly strike against Osama bin Laden. "Justice has been done," he said.
It may be that this sentence comes back to haunt him in the years to come. What is just about killing a feared terrorist in his home in the middle of Pakistan? For the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, and for patriotic Americans who saw their grand nation challenged by a band of criminals, the answer might be simple. But international law experts, who have been grappling with the question of the legal status of the US-led war on terror for years, find Obama's pithy words on Sunday night more problematic.
Claus Kress, an international law professor at the University of Cologne, argues that achieving retributive justice for crimes, difficult as that may be, is "not achieved through summary executions, but through a punishment that is meted out at the end of a trial." Kress says the normal way of handling a man who is sought globally for commissioning murder would be to arrest him, put him on trial and ultimately convict him. In the context of international law, military force can be used in the arrest of a suspect, and this may entail gun fire or situations of self-defense that, in the end, leave no other possibility than to kill a highly dangerous and highly suspicious person. These developments can also lead to tragic and inevitable escalations of the justice process.
Legal-shmegal...You think that law professor Obama cares about international law? Only Republicans are war criminals when violating international law, left wing democrats - HEROS!!! Unilaterally going into a sovereign nation without groveling for UN approval is a Republican problem; those rules don't apply to Democrats. Makes you wonder, did they read Bin Laden his rights before blowing his head off? If they captured him, would he have been sent to Gitmo? Would he have been tried in a U.S. Court? Questions Obama didn't want to face because it would have shown great hypocrisy between his BS campaign rhetoric and actual policies. That's why the kill order was made and not a capture order.
If Bin laden was captured alive and held by the US, there would already be kidnappings holding hundreds or even thousands ransomed for the return of BinLaden. Killing BinLaden was necessary to save lives.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Wow Box--that's scary. I thought he fired at the Seals. Didn't realize the Reps on this board were worried about the rights of Bin Laden.
I've been converted...Obama has convinced me "rule of law"...Who's next on the hit list - 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? If death by M-16 is justice, then set up the firing squads in Gitmo and start serving justice. What happened to the Constitutional rights of terrorists? I thought they had rights? Holder shopped around for a venue for KSM - now execution is ok for liberals since it's at the hands of Obama.
If Bin laden was captured alive and held by the US, there would already be kidnappings holding hundreds or even thousands ransomed for the return of BinLaden. Killing BinLaden was necessary to save lives.
Killing them first ask questions later works for me...Does that apply to all alleged terrorists? Sh!t, Obama bombed and killed Gadaffi's son and grandchildren in the attempted assassination of a head of state. All in the name of a humanitarian mission. You left wingers are great. I always knew liberal Democrat bombs were more just than Republican bombs.
I have a question, why didn't our internationalist president use interpol to serve s warrant on Bin Laden?
Killing them first ask questions later works for me...Does that apply to all alleged terrorists? Sh!t, Obama bombed and killed Gadaffi's son and grandchildren in the attempted assassination of a head of state. All in the name of a humanitarian mission. You left wingers are great. I always knew liberal Democrat bombs were more just than Republican bombs.
I have a question, why didn't our internationalist president use interpol to serve s warrant on Bin Laden?
Cicero You've really been watching too much Faux News. The UN bombed Gadaffi killing his son... Unless You are referring to the REAGAN bombing of Libya in the 80's that killed Gadaffi's family.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Cicero You've really been watching too much Faux News. The UN bombed Gadaffi killing his son...
No dumby, NATO bombed Gadaffi...But of course, painting our planes with NATO markings, you can wash your hands of any blood. Did Obama denounce the attack on Gadaffi as an attempted assassination? I heard crickets coming from the White House...Where are those righteous internationalists now? Where are those same screaming liberals that denounced water boarding as a violation of Geneva Convention rules, but an attempted assassination attempt on the leader of a recognized state goes without a word? I LOVE this...The anti war left are the biggest war mongers and Box is proof. Hypocrites!!!
So far today Cicero is so frustrated by the Obama success, that he's taken the side of Gadaffi, Osama Bin Laden and even the Democrats, Republicans and Muslims. He even supported, get this, International Law!!! What next? Kissing the French???
A good day for America, freedom and anti terrorism... A really bad day for Cicero and the terrorists.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
So far today Cicero is so frustrated by the Obama success, that he's taken the side of Gadaffi, Osama Bin Laden and even the Democrats, Republicans and Muslims. He even supported, get this, International Law!!! What next? Kissing the French???
A good day for America, freedom and anti terrorism... A really bad day for Cicero and the terrorists.
I congratulate Obama and his worldly conquest. Fighting wars in 3 countries, a new war in Libya via NATO, expanding the war in Afghanistan, executing terrorists in the battlefield without trial, keeping Gitmo open, KSM tried by military tribunal, Obama's foreign policy is a neo cons dream. Hmmmm...Only in GWB had such a disregard for international law while he was president.
Hmmmm...Only in GWB had such a disregard for international law while he was president.
See! Cicero's even supporting International Law!!! His envy of a President like Obama who actually is successful, after he backed loser Bush for two wars... bogus WMD's... and the Bush Economic Meltdown, is more than Cicero can bare.
(Tomorrow he may sneak down to the board of elections and change his party designation to Democrat... NO WAIT... he'll change it to LIBERAL!!! )
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
See! Cicero's even supporting International Law!!! His envy of a President like Obama who actually is successful, after he backed loser Bush for two wars... bogus WMD's... and the Bush Economic Meltdown, is more than Cicero can bare.
(Tomorrow he may sneak down to the board of elections and change his party designation to Democrat... NO WAIT... he'll change it to LIBERAL!!! )
I think soon you'll be getting your NRA membership, breaking out your bible, and putting on your "these colors dont' run" American Flag tee shirt, and hanging your Don't Tread On Me flag on the front porch. Soon you'll be saying we can't leave Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan because all those that died would have died in vein. It's quite a transformation the liberal has gone through in just 2 short years. From peacenik to war monger in two years.
I think soon you'll be getting your NRA membership, breaking out your bible, and putting on your "these colors dont' run" American Flag tee shirt, and hanging your Don't Tread On Me flag on the front porch. Soon you'll be saying we can't leave Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan because all those that died would have died in vein. It's quite a transformation the liberal has gone through in just 2 short years. From peacenik to war monger in two years.
Nope, I haven't changed, but your perception of the world has... From a world where GWB was Right, to a world where GWB is a total failure and his opposite Barack Hussein Obama is now America's Hero!
God Bless America and Barack H Obama!
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Nope, I haven't changed, but your perception of the world has... From a world where GWB was Right, to a world where GWB is a total failure and his opposite Barack Hussein Obama is now America's Hero!
God Bless America and Barack H Obama!
Hey the new NEO LIB likes unilateral military power. You libs aren't anti war, but rather anti republican war. This is so fun to watch the left wing rally around their leader that violated Geneva Convention rules twice.
The battle isn't republican or democrat any more it's big government or small government, a constitutional republic or a full blown democracy, where do you guys stand.
"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."
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