I myself do not feel too good about this..for several reasons. One is that his death and mystical' burial at sea' may well make him a martyr much more dangerous than he was these last days, that questions will arise whether he is really dead, that questions will arise why he could not be brought to justice instead, to see him in the dock as criminal or normal (physical) stature rather than an icon, gone in blood and glory.

Robert Fisk, British journalist for the Independant who met with OBL 3 days had these comments in his article:

"A middle-aged nonentity, a political failure outstripped by history – by the millions of Arabs demanding freedom and democracy in the Middle East – died in Pakistan yesterday. And then the world went mad. "

"But the mass revolutions in the Arab world over the past four months mean that al-Qa'ida was already politically dead. Bin Laden told the world – indeed, he told me personally – that he wanted to destroy the pro-Western regimes in the Arab world, the dictatorships of the Mubaraks and the Ben Alis. He wanted to create a new Islamic Caliphate. But these past few months, millions of Arab Muslims rose up and were prepared for their own martyrdom – not for Islam but for freedom and liberty and democracy. Bin Laden didn't get rid of the tyrants. The people did. And they didn't want a caliph."

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion...g-2278028.html

Another journalist, Geoffrey Robertson thinks that in spite of the problems it woud have caused, it was a shame he not brought to trial:

"This would have been the best way of de-mystifying this man, debunking his cause and de-brainwashing his followers. In the dock he would have been reduced in stature – never more remembered as the tall, soulful figure on the mountain, but as a hateful and hate-filled old man, screaming from the dock or lying from the witness box."

"Killing instead of capturing Osama Bin Laden was a missed opportunity to prove to the world that this charismatic leader was in fact a vicious criminal, who deserved to die of old age in prison, and not as a martyr to his inhuman cause."

Then of course there is the ever present question and danger og becoming that which you fight:

"America’s belief in capital punishment is reflected in its rejoicing at the manner of Bin Laden’s demise. .... And now Barak Obama has most likely secured his re-election approving the execution of Bin Laden. This may be welcome, given the alternatives. But it is a sad reflection on the continuing attraction of summary justice.

It was not always thus. When the time came to consider the fate of men much more steeped in wickedness than Bin Laden – the Nazi leadership – the British government wanted them hanged within six hours of capture. President Truman demurred, citing the conclusion of Justice Robert Jackson that summary execution “would not sit easily on the American conscience or be remembered by our children with pride?the only course is to determine the innocence or guilt of the accused after a hearing as dispassionate as the times will permit and upon a record that will leave our reasons and motives clear”. He insisted upon judgment at Nuremberg, which has confounded Holocaust-deniers ever since."


There is much to think abouthere.