A lot of argument come off after an Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was shot dead by US special forces. This argument comes from his son because he thought it is not right to kill an unarmed person as you see in the article" Bin Laden sons protest to US over arbitrary killing" on the BBC news (2011)
According to the New York Times newspaper, Bin Laden's family wanted to know why he was not captured alive because when the US troop found him; he was unarmed. They said that they don't understand why Bin Laden was executed without a court of law and they also said that US decision to bury Bin Laden at sea demeans and humiliates the family and deprived the family of performing religious rites, but attorney general Eric Holder said that "the killing was lawful and an act of national self defence." (2011,¶ 7)
In my opinion, Bin Laden family deserve more rightness and respect because first, Bin Laden was shot when he was unarmed, but Holder said that it was an act of self-defence, so it is really strange that it was self-defence because i am sure that an unarmed person could not do anything to soldier with weapons. Second, bury his body at sea humiliates his family and deprived the family from the religious rites. I think it's kind of insulting to trow his body into the sea. Every religious has its own rites for family and friends to see the body for the last time. The US do like this means insulting to his family and anyone that loves him. Finally, I am pretty sure that almost everone wants to know the truth about the terrorist at World Trade Center, so I think it is better to take him to the court than to kill him and I think it is little prejudice because Iraq former president Saddam Hussein and Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic both had chances to stand trial.
References
Bin Laden sons protest to US over 'arbitrary killing'. (2011, May 11). BBC News. Retrieved May 11,2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13354995
I can't imagine that anyone has not read at least a few articles on this topic since bin Laden was killed by a US Seal team on May 2. And I'm sure that everyone has at least one opinion on what should and should not have been done, and why.
ReplyDeletePeter Jr.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea. I strongly feel that US gorvernment want to cover the truth from everyone. The government use World Trade Center's Attack as a strong reason to declare war on Afghanistan and Iraq. If they bring Osama Bin Laden to court, the truth may leak. Then, people may find out that the government lies to everyone because they want to get oil from these country.
Every country has troublesome issues, likes every family has trouble problems. Goverment has to gain supporting from resident, so that to manage the country better and better. Do what you like to do, but don't hurt others.
ReplyDeleteHi Peter
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult to do everything that can make everyone happy especially with the political topic. However I disagree with you. I think US president had the right to do that. If we look back to what Bill Laden did, it’s very awful. If he was an innocent man, why he kept runing away from the world. In fact his group announces that they were behind this event, they were so proud with what they did with America. He told us from the beginning that Bil laden did it. When he ordered his staff to fly airplanes and hit on the World Trade Buildings. I wonder how many innocent US citizens who left home to work with no weapon to protect them die from this incident. Bil Laden had no mercy and kill those people cruelty. Some bodies die under the collapse building and his or her family never get their body back to bury them also. It’s very complicated to judge which side make the right decision. It’s surprised me when I watched TV, which show the different feeling of American people and Arabian people because they expressed their feeling totally different, for US, all of them scream with happiness that Bil Laden was killed, in the other side, Arabian , they all angry and sad of the death of Bil Laden. That news showed me that it’s very difficult to live in the same world with peace and no argument.
P'art
ReplyDeleteI totally disagree with you that US president had the right to judge Bin Laden, even if he brought the death and tragedy to American nation because of human rights. Like Piter and Pree said Ud government should bring him to court, and the truth will reveal to the world. Obviously, if he completely died ,why US do not show the body ang give him back to his family.However,after killing Bin ladin,Obama's poll increase dramatically.It might be political or nothing.
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteI think this topic is hard to decide who is right or wrong,but in this case I agree with P'Art because if you look back to every events that Bin Laden do , it's bad and should not be forgiven. He kills many innocent people and I sure that they are unarmed,as well.
I think there are several separate questions in this complex case:
ReplyDelete1. Was the killing arbitrary, or are bin Laden's son's just wrong about that?
2. Was it legal?
3. Was it illegal? (Why is it important to ask this question as well as 2. above? Or is it not necessary? )
4. Was it just? Was it morally right? (Does this depend on the answers to 3 or 4 above?)
And there are other questions worth pursuing. I think it helps to keep them seperate if you want your ideas to be clear.
I think it was definitely not arbitrary - bin Laden's sons are just wrong when they say that. Whether his reasons were legal or illegal, right or wrong, the US President definitely had reasons for ordering (or allowing) the killing.
5. Other relevant questions might be whether religion is a good reason for doing something, and how much respect any religion deserves, especially when that religion teaches violence, intolerance, unreason and hatred. I don't think those things deserve any respect, and religions that teach such ideas should not be respected. Just because something is a religion does not make it good, and certainly not right, as numerous examples, such as bin Laden's religiously motivated evils show. (Islam is not the only religion with a morally bad historical record and immoral teachings, but it is the relevant one here.)
Tina
ReplyDeleteI have reason to support my idea why I think US President made the right decision to kill Bil Laden. If US solder arrested him and took him back to US. Can you imagine what might happen? Firstly, the terrorism might happen again. The Arabian will try to get him out of the prison or the opposite side, US citizen, whom lost their family from September 11, will try to kill him. I can’t imagine how much money that US government have to pay to protect Bil Laden, is it worth enough and it will take long time to make the judgment about this case from the court. I’m sure that American people won’t be happy about it.
Secondly, if US made decision to take his body back and send him home for his family due to morally reason. Arabian people who love him will be anger and provoke their people to be terrorist and attack US again. They might keep the body in the statue and use as symbol of braveness for next generation. I think it’s so wrong to respect the killer. From all reasons that I state above, I agree that US President made the right decision.
My previous comment on Peter's post has disappeared after Blogger's technical problems yesterday.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I think that bin Laden's sons are wrong when they say that the killing of their father was arbitrary: President Obama had reasons for that deliberate decision. Those reasons might be right or wrong, and some people, such as bin Laden's sons, might disagree with them, but that does not make the killing arbitrary - wrong perhaps, but not arbitrary.
And that brings us to the more important question: Was it wrong for the US Seal team to kill him? WHilst I agree with Peter that it would have been good to take him in for questioning, I don't think that it was wrong to kill him, as Oat has previously argued in a comment that has also disappeared. (Sorry Oat, you'll have to repost.)
I agree with the decision to bury him at sea to get rid of the body. I think it is better that it not exist to serve as a symbol for even more religion inspired mass murder and terror. When religions have immoral teachings and practise evil they do not deserve respect.
Pree,
ReplyDeleteWhat truth did you think might leak out?
Unlike many other countries, the US does not censor political comments about their rulers. The US respects the right to free speech better than any other country on earth (I'm not American - but I am an admirer of the US's excellent constitution). Anything that bin Laden wanted to say to embarrass the US government has already been said and reported for the American people to hear.
I repost my comment again, just in case you didn't get it.
ReplyDeleteTina
I have reason to support my idea why I think US President made the right decision to kill Bil Laden. If US solder arrested him and took him back to US. Can you imagine what might happen? Firstly, the terrorism might happen again. The Arabian will try to get him out of the prison or the opposite side, US citizen, whom lost their family from September 11, will try to kill him. I can’t imagine how much money that US government have to pay to protect Bil Laden, is it worth enough and it will take long time to make the judgment about this case from the court. I’m sure that American people won’t be happy about it.
Secondly, if US made decision to take his body back and send him home for his family due to morally reason. Arabian people who love him will be anger and provoke their people to be terrorist and attack US again. They might keep the body in the statue and use as symbol of braveness for next generation. I think it’s so wrong to respect the killer. From all reasons that I state above, I agree that US President made the right decision.
This is news that will have many chapters with certainty and each one of us has their opinion regarding the leader's of AQ execution, Bin Laden. In my opinion, we needed to be enemy of us same and contrary to the minimum humanitarian values if we approved the disastrous crime of the terrorism of Al Qaeda of the November 11, 2001, in New York. It is now repeated the inhumanity and the terrorism. The North American intelligence organs for ten years searched the world to hunt Bin Laden without anything to get. Only using an immoral method, of a messenger's of Bin Laden torture, they got to arrive to his hiding place where the execution is ordered. That is going against the universal ethical beginning of "not killing" and of the international agreements that prescribe the prison, the judgment and the accused's punishment. Consequently, I think that was not done justice, was practiced the revenge, always condemnable and that he gives flow the continuity of these barbarisms as we can already know through the news yesterday, where 80 people were killed in Pakistan, for Bin Laden followers in reprisal his death. I can be being pessimistic, but I think the worst is for coming and most of the time that pays with their own lives to this revenge type is the people that nothing has to do with this brutality.
ReplyDeletePeter Jr
ReplyDeleteYour topic even as Peter’s said everybody Know. It is not easy to give an opinion without affect one side of the controversial topic. However I will try to give my comment. Whether, we suppose he was unarmed when the soldiers killed him. I think his family does not have the morally value to said that they don’t understand why the soldiers kill Bin Laden without court of law. The answer could be that they only tried to adjust to their beliefs and acted as they would have acted according to the Islam and traditional Muslim, under the talion Law in the familiar expression "an eye for an eye. Nevertheless I know this answer is not a solution. So I agree with Tina’s said the governments must need to do all that is necessary to take care their country, yet sometimes It is impossible to avoid the collateral damage. In my personal opinion it was a good decision, moreover I think Islam practice call for burial within 24 hrs. Do you think they can do something with his body in this time without risk?
Neiva raised the question of how the US came to know where bin Laden was, and that they might have used torture to obtain that information worries me more than the fact he was killed. Since there is no reasonable doubt as to his guilt, the primary purpose of a court has already been fulfilled; the only thing could justify killing him is that he is guilty of a heinous crime, which I do not think that anyone, not even his sons, and certainly not himself, doubts, and that guilt being well established, his execution, whether armed or not, seems not unreasonable. However, as Neiva rightly points out, this raises some questions about justice and morality that need to be answered:
ReplyDelete1. Is the death penalty ever justified? If it is, when and why? If not, why not?
2. Is killing every justified? If it is, when and why? If not, why not?
3. And such questions lead quickly to slightly more general ones, such as: Is it ever right to punish people? If yes, when and why?
And before we can even answer question 1 above, I think more things need to be settled: first, is the death penalty an effective deterrent? Does it really reduce crime? Although the use of the death penalty in civilised nations such as the US does not significantly affect crime rates, the answer to this appears to be yes. Criminals are sensitive to punishments, and if the penalty a crime is increased significantly, that crime tends to decrease. If people's heads were cut off for smoking in public, it is very likely that smoking in public would drop to a very low level. Of course, this does not show or support the idea that the death penalty is right or moral, merely that it is an effective deterrent to crime. The use of the death penalty against smokers would seem to me to be wrong - wholly out of proportion to the offence. In fact, since smoking in public is often merely illegal and not morally wrong, the laws against it are unjust and therefore any punishment must be unjust. Similarly, many crimes that carry the death penalty in various nations are not wrong, and such use of the death penalty must certainly be a gravely immoral act against citizens; Thailand and some other countries, for example, allow teh death penalty for dealing in drugs, and that cannot be right, but must be a great injustice in the legal systems of those countries.