Thread: Should Osama bin Laden have been taken dead or alive?

I just voted and I said he should have been captured alive...but it is a very difficult question to answer.
If kept alive he would have been a magnet for revenge attacks and terrorist actions to free him. A lot of innocent people might have died in those. In addition there is the question of exactly how and why he had ben in Pakistan that long withour anyone apparently noticing...and less than 1 Km from one of Pakistans most prestigious and (in theory) most secure military acadamys. Obviously he had some "high ranking and important friends" in the Pakistani government in order to be there and not be noticed. it's equivalent to an IRA leader wanted for a bombing in Northern Ireland living less than 1 Km from Sandhurst with no one noticing that fact. To much of a coincidence to be pure chance in my opinion.
On the other hand being dead will make him a martyer figure for many people. And some kind of retaliation is very likely.
So either way, there is no easy answer to that question.
I really believe the final decision was made on the basis of "a dead man tells no tales" and that was what swayed the final decision...on all sides.
Practicality, not morality, is what really runs every nations foriegn policy....if you don't believe that you're being very foolish.
Having said that, I still would have liked to see the U.S. take the high road and at least have attempted to put him on trial. But I realise that for practical and political reasons that may not have been possible.