POSTED COMMENT TO A COLUMN BY CLIVE CROOK IN THE FINANCIAL TIMES
Bin Laden’s killing was simply cold-blooded murder.
A bunch of heavily-armed thugs grabbed an unarmed man and shot him in the head, and with his family in the house.
A disgusting act, no matter what he may have been guilty of.
He could have been taken to The Hague and charged, but that might require some proof of something.
And we have never, never been given one ounce of genuine evidence that bin Laden was guilty of anything except intensely disliking the United States and its good friend, the House of Saud.
But murder and vengeance and abuse have become American passions, with people cheering murderers and Obama sending fleets of drones and “kill-teams” into Pakistan regularly, taking the lives of hundreds of innocent people.
And even when they do kill a suspected "bad guy," it is done with no legal authority or procedure, no charges or trial. What is the difference from the former Argentinean junta’s death squads making people disappear? None.
And America's high-handed treatment of Pakistan, demanding the right to enter and kill people at will, has had terrible effects within that poor country. Thousands have died with people in revolt against the government's quiet acceptance of America's death machines and "kill-teams" wondering around the land assassinating people as they please.
Our only protection as free societies is in our laws. It has taken centuries to build those laws and treaties and to gain widespread honoring of them.
But the United States has unilaterally decided, since the war criminal Bush and now very much under the savagely unethical Obama, to decide who to bomb and kill in the world regardless of treaties, regardless of laws, regardless of long-term consequences.
You cannot make the world a better place with that kind of vicious descent into lawlessness.
There is the terrible example of Israel's lawless behavior before us. It has kidnapped, tortured, abused, murdered, committed piracy, and plotted against the legitimate interests of its neighbors for decades. It stands in contempt of the United Nations and international law and humanitarian agreements of every description.
And what is the result of all that horror? A small group of people, armed to the teeth and hiding behind walls, huddled in a garrison state surrounded by people whose customs and very existence it has utter contempt for. Its government has built a future for its people of endless abuse and trampling on the rights of others, a bleak netherworld with no hope for decency, integrity, honesty, or any ideals concerning human rights or meaningful democracy to shine through.
That is what the United States is copying, precisely, and the results will be the same, precisely.
If you want to live in a world of laws, then you must honor the laws. There is no other choice.
