http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/02/remarks-president-osama-bin-laden
President Barack Obama, in his speech regarding the killing (murder? assassination?) of Osama bin Laden, said:
“And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.”
There are many ways to parse that, but I can’t help but pause and acknowledge that, straight-up, ending someone’s life was a cornerstone of one of our national policies. I know there are many a hawk out there who don’t even flinch hearing this and that, given the context in which this name entered into the consciousnesses of most people, most people are hawkish when it comes to bin Laden. Don’t get me wrong – I think he was a murderer whose freedoms should most certainly have been curtailed. I’m not a fan of death, and as a result don’t support the death penalty, or wars. I realize that my ideological viewpoint can only be taken so far before, pragmatically, it becomes pretty indefensible. In this instance, I can’t imagine I’d be able to convince many people that bin Laden should have been captured and taken to trial – though it is worth noting that bin Laden *wanted* to be killed in combat, and captured him and making him stand trial and serve multiple life sentences would have been far greater a consequence.
But that said, hearing Obama express that killing a human being was an important part of his plan caught me off guard. If Martin Luther King had explained that killing the head of the KKK was the most important part of his plan, how many would have followed?
