POLITICS - Osama bin Laden

I've been thinking about Osama bin Laden lately (who hasn't) and what we should do about him. My gut feeling is, capture him, then slow-roast him on a spit over hot coals. But that's my gut feeling and not what I would do in the real world.

We have two choices, as I see it; 1) hunt him down, and kill him on the spot or 2) capture him and put him on trial for mass murder.

What we have to consider, no matter what our gut feelings are, is the long-run effect on the Arab/Muslim world. In our own interest, we cannot disregard how the Arabs or Muslims see Osama ben Laden compared to how they see the "West" which includes the USA. We cannot, realistically, change the minds of Muslim fanatics, but we can be somewhat safer if the majority of the Arab and/or Muslim world see us in a better light.

The Arab/Muslim world see ben Laden as a champion of their "cause" at the least, and a prophet at the worst. What is their "cause?" Well, historically the West has not treated the Arab world (and thereby the Muslim world) well nor justly. It's not just the Palestine vs. Israel thing; it's what has been done in the area since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Crusades, etc. As far as the status of Osama bin Laden in the Arab world, well thanks to Bush, we have helped elevate him to a prophet by fulfilling his prophecy (uttered long before 9/11) that a Christian nation would invade a Muslim nation for oil. Regardless of what we think the Iraq invasion was about, the Arab world sees it as fulfillment of Osama's prophecy.


As stated in "The Frightening Evolution of al-Qaida" on 6/24/2005 by Robert Windrem, NBC News:

Over the past year, essentially since the Madrid train bombings on March 11, 2004, U.S. intelligence and policy-makers have had a changed view of al- Qaida. Instead of the hierarchical organization portrayed by the president — with his scorecard of how many leaders have been killed or captured — those closest to the counterterrorism effort see a network that while less capable of mega-attacks like Sept. 11 is more capable of a long-lasting war against the United States and the West.

The capture or killing of Osama bin Laden would be a major event in the war on terrorism, one with positive — and even some negative — consequences for the United States and its allies, but it would not signal the end of al-Qaida, the end of Islamic terrorism or even the reconfiguring of the network.

In my opinion killing Osama bin Laden would not be just a "negative" but a disaster. It would elevate him to a martyr, a martyred prophet. Pontius Pilot made that mistake and the world now has a religion that can, in part, be based on that mistake. {By the way, nothing against Christianity, just a historical fact} Remember, no matter what the West sees, this is a religious matter in the Arab/Muslim world.

That leaves us with option #2 above but even here we have to be very careful on how we handle this.

Capturing him and whisking him off to Guantanamo would be a mistake. In the Arab world "Gitmo" = torture and injustice, no matter what we feel. Whisking him off to another country or location for "interrogation" would be just as bad.

What we need to do is to capture him and put him on trial, in full public view (TV-pool coverage, maybe C-SPAN), with all the protections under our system of justice. Considering all the incriminating evidence (writings, video tapes, statements from terrorist "combatants," and other sources) I cannot see how he could not be found guilty in the end. {Of course, lawyers would defend Satin with all the tricks in the book without a twinge of conscience} Even then we cannot afford to execute him, if we did he still ends up as a martyred prophet. What we do is put him away for life without parole. Note after the trial, during his "vacation with us," we would have plenty of time to interrogate him.