Columns

This week’s motion is “Should the US have shot Osama bin Laden?” Todd Dickens argues the affirmative while Keegan Burrow argues the negative.
Affirmative
Sometimes it is simply not good enough to do your best, you have to actually succeed at doing what is necessary. Obama knows this. He took care of two of America’s biggest problems in one month: Donald Trump and Osama bin Laden. The first involved producing a birth certificate and a scene from The Lion King. The second some Navy SEALs and two bullets. It is what was needed.

No other approach would have worked. Maybe in some ideal world the Dundas Dairy would never run out of Snickers, the Labour Party might manage to put together some half decent policy that would make beating them actually satisfying, we would be wealthier than that big desert across the ditch and bin Laden would have been captured and put on trial. Say we put him on trial in NYC where his biggest claim to fame went down. No one would have accepted a secret trial, it would have been a media circus attracting terrorist sorts from all over. You may claim his shooting has sparked an uplifting of hatred; can you imagine the consequences of having him in a US prison and getting mass media attention? The trial itself would be ridiculous, twelve “unbiased” Americans would send him down immediately. In NYC there is no death penalty so he would have become a martyr for his followers, and many would have attempted to set him free. Another option being he goes to a jurisdiction where he can be strapped to a chair and electrocuted, or injected with the right stuff to paralyse him and close down his organs. A bullet to the head saves the time, money, hassle and keeps it all off American soil. Adding to the execution the treatment that bin Laden would get on the way there, the Navy SEALs’ bullets seem far more humane.
 
The US could have worked with Pakistan to capture him, right? The man was living in a multi-million dollar compound just out of Abbottabad. By the time America would have managed to even get a step in through the bureaucracy, somebody would have passed the knowledge on to bin Laden. Just like that, the hunt goes on for another year at least. If you want something done, do it yourself. America did what they knew was the only option and succeeded.

In a democracy we try to give all a fair trial. A woman who robbed a Vodafone store in Whangarei late last year with a small air rifle was shot dead for being a threat. It happens. You lose your rights when you become a threat. If a small time criminal classes as one, then most certainly the US should have shot Osama.
- Todd Dickens 

 
Negative
“Love liberty and freedom”. Osama may not have loved America, by destroying others’ freedoms he voided his own and he believed that he was working for the liberty of his people.

 
There are three reasons that mean that another option for Osama would have been suitable: precedent, America’s own ideals and the factor of the ideal world.

 
There is a large precedent that is understandable for the capture of suspect criminals. Even in New Zealand, with fair proof of guilt the police are able to take you in your sleep; it is simply safer for them. As America is seen as the “international police unit”, it may be seen for them to find and capture such collaborators. But even the police cannot be bailiff, judge, jury and executioner. These jobs must be separated, for the sanctity of justice. The Nuremberg trials are an example of a combination of justice and fair recourse to the law; why not have the Baghdad trials as well? There is precedent, there is evidence, there is justice.

 
“We the People of the United States… establish Justice…provide…common defence, promote the general Welfare, and …[the] Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” —United States Constitution, Preamble. 
 

America has decided to go against its own founding ideals, mainly justice. I agree a court battle at the base of the twin towers probably would create Osama into a martyr, but this does not mean that every individual involved in international atrocities should be shot on the spot. As described under precedent, there are many examples in which justice has been provided where many do not think it is fit. Justice is a process, not only for those who are in the wrong but those who have been wronged and this is why it is key for justice to occur.

 
The policy of “if you want a job done right, do it yourself” has led to Bruce Emery, the infamous tagger killer, being jailed for four years. This may not be a perfect world but we can work at it. This can start with justice, recourse to the law and communication. America is acting like the world police but little do they stop to think that maybe they should obey the rules that they set out themselves. That would be a perfect world. Now, I am not after a Europa, for that would be boring, but this scenario reminds me of 1984 and the powers allowed to the government within the story. All I hope is that by 2984 we are not in the same place.
 

All I can say is “Team America fuck yeah”.


- Keegan Burrow