Jeff Byrne

    LAWS are put in place for the protection and well-being of a society. They are there to restrain us or encourage us to restrain ourselves. International law is less well-defined.

    “Justice has been done,” declared U.S. President Barack Obama after Osama bin Laden was summarily executed in Abbotabad, Pakistan, in the early hours of Monday a week ago.

    Well no, it wasn’t justice. It was nothing more than revenge. Justice, you see, is a concept that means different things to different people. Judicial systems do not administer justice. They administer the law. Not quite the same.

    The attack on the compound housing bin Laden by U.S. Navy SEALs was an incursion on a sovereign state as was the invasion of Iraq which had the intent to depose Saddam Hussein. Weapons of mass destruction were a false pretext, but it was good enough for the “coalition of the willing” principally led by then U.S. President George W. Bush and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.

    Early reports of the Abbotabad raid painted a scene of mayhem. Bin Laden was shot in the midst of a firefight that lasted 40 minutes. This had us believe that he was armed and strenuously resisted. A woman, identified as one of his wives, was shot and killed when she tried to protect him.

    All of this was later retracted. There was no firefight. The woman was wounded in the leg. A courier had fired on the attackers at the beginning of the assault and was shot and killed. Three men and a woman were shot and killed, along with bin Laden. They were unarmed although there was reportedly a pistol and an AK47 rifle in the room with bin Laden.

    Bin Laden was reported to have “resisted.” What does an unarmed man resist? Arrest and capture? As bad as this man was, with his warped sense of good and evil, there are those who believe he should have — and could have — been captured, tried in open court and sentenced. Others believe his assassination was legitimate.

    It has emerged that a surrender would only have been accepted if bin Laden was found naked. When he was found wearing night clothes, it proved fatal. He could have been wearing a suicide vest. In bed? Head of the CIA, Leon Panetta, said the Navy SEALs had made the decision to kill and not the president. Panetta continued: “Obviously, under the rules of engagement, if [bin Laden] had, in fact, thrown up his hands, surrendered and did not appear to be representing any kind of threat, then they were to capture him. But, they had full authority to kill him. To be frank, I don’t think he had a lot of time to say anything.”

    A daughter of bin Laden who was present at the time reportedly told Pakistani authorities that her father had been captured alive before he was killed.

    That bin Laden was a monster is not in dispute. He was directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands worldwide — not least the almost 3,000 Americans at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 — and inspired murderous radical Muslims around the world.

    Whether Obama ordered his capture or death is now a moot point. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton recently revealed that he had secretly authorized bin Laden’s assassination by the CIA in the 1990s. Bush demanded his “head on a plate” after 9/11. Nevertheless, bin Laden’s death has been welcomed worldwide, except for radical Muslims who vow retaliation. That al-Qaida has confirmed bin Laden’s death should end claims of a political conspiracy to boost Obama’s ratings, but it probably won’t in some circles.

    America is feeling good about itself, even Jingoistic. Champagne corks popped in Times Square in New York while crowds were drawn to the site of the trade center catastrophe. Displays of patriotism are rampant.

    But, when international law is ignored, we run the risk of eventually descending into chaos. America has never respected international law except when it’s convenient, but she is now down in the mud from where al-Qaida emerged. The extent of the damage to al-Qaida won’t be known for some time but, removing the head of the snake doesn’t necessarily mean it is dead.

    The next enemy of the United States is yet to be identified but, rest assured, one will be found. The U.S. military industrial complex demands it.

    (The author is a Shenzhen Daily senior copy editor and writer.)