Should Bin Laden have been taken alive?

[Gandalf]

Oh and by the way they were unarmed... The American government made a mistake when they said they had a gun fight

You raise some good points in this thread.

I find it deplorable how quickly people can say 'he was a waste of breath, a bullet was the kindest thing to do etc'. If he was such a criminal then a court of law should have been used and the world could have seen the evidence, but this was seemingly never going to be an option. A quick bullet to the brain ended the need for such trivialities. Bin Laden needed a bullet to the brain and yet there are a million people less people around the world because of this war on terror. Bush and Blair are just as, if not more, responsible for the loss of inncent lives. But lest we forget, we don't try former leaders of nations with a population exceeding 500,000. It is perfectly okay to assasinate people? The thought that this is somehow justified astounds me and further adds to my contempt of ordinary people.

It is terribly uncivilised and to me makes us no better than the terrorists we are chasing. But we have shown that time and time again what with torture, wanton murder, illegal invasion etc. Osama Bin Laden even in death has made a mockery of our societies and our pretences at being somehow morally advanced or in the right.

[VictorCharlie]

Miles,

You have infinetly higher expectations of human beings than I do. Lower the bar a little and you won't be so let down or surprised all the time.