[WS:] I really do not know answers to such deep philosophical questions. All I know is that capturing ObL alive and trying him in either US or the NATO err... "International" Court of Justice in the Hague would turn into a circus of western triumphalism and humiliation of ObL.
I actually think that folks like ObL and his mujahadeen do deserve to die. Part of it is related to the extremely reactionary role they played, with CIA and ISI support, in Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s, turning this country back to murderous barbarism. The other part is related to a distinction that in my mind exist between national liberation fighters, such as Vietcong, going after strategic or tactical targets, and a bunch of disgruntled religious fanatics going after easy target for the maximum show effect to other disgruntled religious fanatics. I can see the legitimacy of the former, but the latter are basically serial killers on steroids.
>From that pov, killing ObL was choosing an act of humane euthanasia
instead of a political circus and legal lynching.
Btw I am for legalized euthanasia too, Kevorkian was my hero.
-- Wojtek http://wsokol.blogspot.com/