The administration should be taking some cues from Ilya Somin.
4 thoughts on “Making The Legal Case For Killing Bin Laden”
I think there was a good case to consider OBL as an enemy commander and a legal target for military action. The fact that he was an unlawful combatant doesn’t make him a less valid target.
If the SEALs had an opportunity to take him alive without undue risk to themselves (and we can’t know for sure until we see the helmet cam video) they probably should have given him the opportunity to surrender, like any enemy in the same circumstances. We don’t know if they did.
He must also be considered a war criminal, and that alone would not have been enough to justify a targeted assassination had the conflict already ended or had he lost his position of command. But it hadn’t and he hadn’t.
But under either reasoning there was no authority to kidnap his dead body and dispose of it. He may have deserved it, but I don’t think it was legal.
I wonder if it would be worthwhile to codify the notion of going to “war” with an NGO.
I can think of several NGOs for whom that would be highly worthwhile.
As for bin Laden, I prefer the time honored Texas concept: “He deserved killing.”
I think there was a good case to consider OBL as an enemy commander and a legal target for military action. The fact that he was an unlawful combatant doesn’t make him a less valid target.
If the SEALs had an opportunity to take him alive without undue risk to themselves (and we can’t know for sure until we see the helmet cam video) they probably should have given him the opportunity to surrender, like any enemy in the same circumstances. We don’t know if they did.
He must also be considered a war criminal, and that alone would not have been enough to justify a targeted assassination had the conflict already ended or had he lost his position of command. But it hadn’t and he hadn’t.
But under either reasoning there was no authority to kidnap his dead body and dispose of it. He may have deserved it, but I don’t think it was legal.
I wonder if it would be worthwhile to codify the notion of going to “war” with an NGO.
I can think of several NGOs for whom that would be highly worthwhile.
As for bin Laden, I prefer the time honored Texas concept: “He deserved killing.”