Madam, – I am an Irish citizen living in the United States. I shared the letters on the killing of Osama bin Laden from this week’s Irish Times with several friends and colleagues. They were astonished at the content and tone of those criticising the US for ridding the world of a wicked terrorist. They could not understand how people in a country that most hold dearly could, in effect, lament the death of an unrepentant mass-murderer of innocent civilians. Do they know know what happened on 9/11, they asked me; do they not realise that we are at war against terrorists who are willing to strike anyone at anytime? Do they not know that in a war you kill the generals on the other side?
I had no easy answer for them. I did not explain how we tolerated domestic terrorists in our country for a generation, of how some feted the snipers of Armagh and the butchers of Shankill; and of how, just a month ago, someone put a bomb under a young policeman’s car. Instead, I told them that at least our political leaders had the courage to congratulate the US on doing us all a favour; and that, this week, I was never more glad to live in their country. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Daragh McDowell’s twisted take on the applicability of international law to the assassination of Osama bin Laden (May 6th) demands a retort.
Article 3 of the Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war binds the Contracting Parties, in relation to any persons placed hors de combat, to refrain from “the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognised as indispensable by civilised peoples”. Thus, to justify under international law bin Laden’s summary execution, it would be necessary to argue that he – an unarmed man, surrounded by 24 US navy Seals, with no conceivable escape route – was not hors de combat. I am not sure which is more perverse. This attempt to justify murder under international law, or al-Qaeda’s repeated attempts to justify it under sharia law. God forgive us all. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – It is interesting that the outpourings of piety over the Americans’ “illegal” use of violence in the killing of Osama bin Laden come just days after Ireland’s official glorification of the orgy of violence of 1916. Do I detect a certain double standard? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – When the masses believe that assassination equals justice, I know we truly live in Orwellian times. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The decision by the US authorities not to inform the Pakistani Government of its intention to pursue Osama bin Laden was perfectly understandable. The Pakistani intelligence services are so compromised that there was a serious chance that the news would in all likelihood have leaked to the intended target. The Pakistani charge that the action was a breach of that country’s sovereignty is specious as the reality on the ground is that the government’s writ does not extend to vast areas of that country. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Employing the same kind of clichéd hyperbole as his discedited predecessor, US President Barack Obama claims “the world is a safer place” with the demise of Osama bin Laden. As both Bush and his sidekick Blair used precisely the same meaningless waffle to justify the liquidation of Saddam Hussein, one could safely assume the world must be getting safer and safer all the time. While, of course, not wishing to seem ungrateful in the face of such unstinting humanitarianism, I can’t honestly say it’s working! Yours, etc,
Madam, – I feel the lack of information in the form of cold, hard facts with regard to the killing of Osama bin Laden is an outrage.
Niall McArdle wrote that bin Laden’s burial at sea shows the United States respect for his religion (May 3rd). It is an utter disgrace that the US has been spreading this message as it is blatantly false. No Muslim is buried at sea, with the exception of the small few who die at sea. As stated explicitly in the Koran, Muslims are to be buried laying on their right side with their head facing in the direction of Mecca. Had the US fulfilled this course of action, it would show a respect for bin Laden’s faith. Philip Donnelly wrote that the US deserves our gratitude for defending a free, democratic, secular world (May 3rd). This war, although never advertised explicitly, has everything to do with religion. Islam has been disgraced and disreputed in the eyes of the world by the actions of one man. His heinous actions are condemned by peoples of all faiths yet for many, it is Islam, not bin Laden at the source of this conflict. Had Hitler been a devout Christian and justified his mass murders with words from the Bible, it would be expected that Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims alike would associate his ideals with all Christians. However, we know that this is not the case.
Why then can we not see that this is the exact same scenario but with the tables turned? Has anyone even thought of how many Muslims were in the Twin Towers? Why do we assume that their families are not seeking justice as fervently as any other? In this modern day and age, it is time we put our futile stereotyping and prejudices behind us. It is wrongful information and generalisation that have fuelled the support for this war for so long. It is time that we ended it. Sooner, rather than later. – Yours, etc.
Madam, – I have found two ways to overcome reservations about the morality and justice questions relating to the killing of Osama bin Laden: First, his killing was an act of war – a spectacular version of a sniper in a church spire killing a general. Bin Laden started the war on September 11th, 2001.
Second, if he was in American captivity, how many hostages would be killed by al-Qaeda in their efforts to secure his release? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – David Fitzgerald (May 5th) mistakenly describes my suggested anagram as “incorrect”. In fact, there is no universally accepted standard for transliterating Arabic words and names into English. The FBI and CIA, as well as other US governmental agencies, have used “Usama Bin Laden”. – Yours, etc,