What Will Happen if Bin Laden is Captured?
President Obama has already been far more successful in prosecuting the War on Terror in his first year than George W. Bush was in his entire 8 year term. And now Pakistani officials are reporting that the traitor Adam Gadahn has been captured in Pakistan. Gadahn, formerly Adam Pearlman of Oregon, is an American citizen. Born in America of Jewish ancestry but raised as Christian. He joined al Queda and has been a fairly high level operative in the terror network, often as the al Queda spokesman to the English-speaking world.
Gadahn has already been charged with treason, and it is clear he is a traitor. He should be returned to America to face trial in a civilian court, where he will no doubt be convicted of treason and executed thereafter.
But given the success of the Obama Administration in his operations against the Taliban and Al Queda, one starts to get the feeling that, if he is still alive and in Pakistan, that we are closing in on Bin Laden. So what happens if he is captured? Or found and killed?
I personally believe 30 million conservative heads will simultaneously explode.
Don’t worry — Liz Cheney will be here to tell us how Bin Laden’s capture makes us all unsafe. Actually, my guess is that they ignore the actual capture as much as they can, and immediately start pounding the administration on whatever they end up doing with him. Because obviously, nothing short of a public torturing and execution will live up to the neocon code of ethics.
That is why I believe if Bin Laden is ever found, he will be killed on the spot. This is not only because of what Cheney and other Rethugs will say and do, but also because Bin Laden will become more of a martyr in captivity than in death.
If Bin Laden is found, the same thing will happen as when they found Saddam Hussein, or his sons or al Zarqawi.
The Congress will stick the US taxpayer for another hundred billion $ to kill more people.
LockheedMartin’s stock price will jump.
Whichever party controls the White House will yell yippee.
Bin Laden will become more of a martyr in captivity than in death.
I disagree. Martyrs are people who are killed unjustly for their beliefs. A bin Laden trial is an opportunity to show the world American justice done right… to sentence him for his crimes, not for his beliefs. A messy ambiguous death in battle would make him a martyr forever.
America could atone for a lot of sins by putting bin Laden on trial and getting it right.
Dammit – come to think of it, the only reason I think bin Laden is responsible for 9/11 is because George Bush told me so. Sorry but that is not a good enough standard for justice.
Obomba would probably ask him what changes he’d like to see in the healthcare bill.
How about Bin Laden telling you? http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/29/international/30osamaCND.html.
The answer would be that we celebrate that our President isn’t a complete failure.
A recent analysis suggests that the strategy of decapitation [finding and removing leaders] to combat terrorist groups may be unproductive – that leadership gaps are quickly filled and that groups become more virulent than where this strategy is not used.
“Optimism toward the success of decapitation is based primarily on theories of charismatic leadership. … Social network analysis, which is rooted in sociological studies of organizational dynamics, would predict more variability in the success of decapitation. …
“A group’s age, size, and type are all important predictors of when decapitation is likely to be effective. The data indicate that as an organization becomes larger and older, decapitation is less likely to result in organizational collapse. Furthermore, religious groups are highly resistant to attacks on their leadership, while ideological organizations are much easier to destabilize through decapitation.
“Second, the data also show that decapitation is not an effective counterterrorism strategy. Decapitation does not increase the likelihood of organizational collapse beyond to a baseline rate of collapse for groups over time. The marginal utility for decapitation is actually negative. Groups that have not had their leaders targeted have a higher rate of decline than groups
whose leaders have been removed. Decapitation is actually counterproductive, particularly for larger, older, religious, or separatist organizations. …
“Ultimately, these findings indicate that our current counterterrorism strategies need rethinking. The data show that independent of other measures, going after the leaders of older, larger, and religious groups is not only ineffective, it is counterproductive. Moreover, the decentralized nature of many current terrorist organizations has proven to be highly resistant to
decapitation and to other counterterrorism measures.”
Jenna Jordan, “When Heads Roll: Assessing the Effectiveness of Leadership Decapitation,” Security Studies, 18: 719-755
i think the right wing will flock to his defense. All he was doing was trying to dimantle the progressive bastardized moral america! A1 would use it to show that Obama only cares about imperialism and the american police state abroad, and delcrat would say something disparaging about Israel.
I’ve come to the realization that the hard core Obama haters on the right AND left will always hate him no matter what.
So if Bin Laden is captured? Obama will credit the military, some people will find a way to criticize him, and sane people will look beyond it all and focus on what matters.
(for the record, i would not protest if we decided to torture Bin Laden to death) (bring it)
What will happen? Eric Holder and half the other Obama appointees to the Justice Department will resign so that they can defend their hero.
William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright will be permitted to use the White House grounds to hold a fundraiser for Osama’s defense, with Michelle Obama as the keynote speaker.
a.price wrote “i would not protest if we decided to torture Bin Laden to death” once again showing that he hates America, human rights, the Geneva convention, and the rule of law.