Madam, – The more one considers the killing of bin Laden the more it assumes the status of a show-trial, Hollywood-style. The main purpose being to have President Obama re-elected. No mean outcome if one considers the alternatives.
Those who claim it as a blow against terrorism are deluding themselves.
All indications are that al-Qaeda has devolved into many autonomous groups, with no central command. So bin Laden is a much greater asset dead, particularly in the manner of his killing. An inspiring martyr.
So what was the alternative? Publicity. Provide photographs and TV images for the media. “We know where he’s hiding but as upholders of international law we can’t invade a sovereign state.” Put it up to Pakistan. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Now that so much energy has been expended on finding Osama bin Laden, perhaps a similar effort could go into finding the former Serb commander, Ratko Mladic, responsible for the murder of almost 8,000 Bosnian men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, the single largest atrocity in Europe since the second World War, and a massacre far larger than that on 9/11.
Despite this, Mladic appears to remain at large, much to the shame of the current Serbian government and Europe generally, which has made no serious attempt to apprehend him. His capture would bring some solace to the relatives of his victims, many of whom have lived in Ireland since that time and continue to press for justice. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Even Adolph Eichmann who sent 430,000 Hungarians Jews, among numerous others, to the gas chambers, was given a four-month trial before being hung.
After hiding under an assumed name for 10 years he was captured in Buenos Aires and secretly brought back to Israel by Mossad, the Israeli secret service. What a contrast with the shooting without trial of Osama bin Laden.
All in the free world must shudder when a graduate of the world’s finest law school watches on live TV the execution of anyone without due process or trial. It is indeed a black day for justice. – Yours, etc,