POSTED BY SEVEN DAYS FREELANCE REPORTER KEVIN J. KELLEY
Add this one to the “Only in Burlington” file:
Two veteran peace activists called a news conference on Friday to condemn the killing of Osama bin Laden as an act of “murder” on the part of the Obama administration. The shooting of the unarmed Al Qaeda leader constitutes an assassination that violates standards of international justice as well as the founding principles of the United States, declared Burlington attorney Sandy Baird and Peace and Justice Center cofounder Robin Lloyd.
The two women acknowledged that very few Americans will share their view that bin Laden should have been arrested and put on trial rather than being, in Baird’s words, “summarily executed.” But it’s wrong to sacrifice principle for the sake of popularity, Baird and Lloyd argued.
“We are the only voices that don’t seem entirely gleeful about the assassination of Osama bin Laden,” Baird said, likening the reaction to the killing to “crowds cheering as though it were a sports event.” She criticized Vermont’s three congressional representatives for praising the action carried out by a U.S. Special Forces Team on May 1.
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This article appears in May 4-10, 2011.
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“It’s Free Speech, David.”I agree, but you missed my point. 7D censored my response to Luhrs and Strat.
It’s Free Speech, David. Extreme views from different sides have been published here, without censorship. And I agree that allowing these extreme views to be aired exposes their absurdity. Violence is rarely the best answer. The USA has made some huge mistakes by using force when none was warranted. Too many civilians have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. But sometimes violent force it is necessary. Sometimes, killing one man can save dozens of others.
I’m fine with those statements not being censored. Shows the ignorance of some and keeps us from having to repeat the same thing over and over when the other peaceniks stop by to post identical talking points.
Um, so it’s ok on this blog for a poster to make unsubstantiated accusations that “the kill ratio in the USA’s war is 7 civilians to every soldier.”Um, so it’s ok for the same poster to make the shameful statement that only Americans who are “economically coerced” or “dumb” would serve in the military.Um, so it’s ok for a poster to ignorantly call the US’s action against Bin Laden “illegal” even though he’s immediately proven wrong by the next two posts.Um, so its ok for the same poster to accuse President Obama of “masturbating” over a centerfold?And why are these people allowed to post this garbage but some responses are censored? Because apparently any ultra left-wing bomb-throwing nonsense gets published in Seven Days, no matter how harsh, outrageous, or shocking.
It isn’t illegal if the Pakistan gives the US permission to pursue and kill Bin Laden on their sovereign soil: “The US and Pakistan struck a secret deal almost a decade ago permitting a US operation against Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil similar to last week’s raid that killed the al-Qaida leader, the Guardian has learned.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/09/osama-bin-laden-us-pakistan-deal
Strat123, Please tell us all the levels this was illegal on? Targeted killing is perfectly legal.We do have permission to conduct military operations in Pakistan. And BTW, not one post on here said that it was or wasn’t. You are the only one to bring that point up. What are all these illegal things?
Someone actually believes American troops conducting a military operation on foreign sovereign soil without permission was not illegal?? If you believe that’s not revisionist, I have a big black helicopter tail to sell you. Slightly damaged.Bin Laden’s assassination was wrong on so many levels. Aren’t we a country founded on the concept that justice is blind? Yet here we have a president masturbating over his new bin Laden centerfold photos. There’s an irony to bin Laden’s death occurring at the hands of the same country who made him who he was.
@ Matt,You take issue with Jen for “spewing [her] ignant (sic) jingoism out over the internet . . .” but your belief that if the US just stayed home everything in the world would be hunky dory is just as “ignant.” The US not “minding its own business” didn’t cause WWI or WWII, but our eventual involvement in those wars, particularly WWII, was necessary to prevent Hitler from controlling Europe. Nor did the US failure to “mind its own business” cause the horrific genocides in the former Yugoslavia, nor any of the several genocides that have taken place on the African continent in the last couple of decades. Should the US just sit back and let these genocides happen, in the interest of “minding our own business”? Or should we try to stop them? If we do the latter, that would involve us being on foreign soil, which you seem to not want us to do. And in order to work against those genocides, the US has to have foreign bases.Your response to Jen is way too simplistic. Nice try.
Video of the Press Conference available here: http://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/programs/peace-communities-response-assassination-osama-bin-laden
“Anyone who would question that the perpetrator of mass murder on American soil didn’t deserve what he got needs to have their head examined.” – Barack Obama