Reply #164: Here's a hypothetical for your consideration.

[LiberalAndProud]

Let us imagine that Bin Laden had been tried at the Hague per international law and found not guilty. Do you think there may have been repercussions? Would it serve to strengthen the rule of international law here in the "exceptional" United States do you think?

I tend to think the opposite reaction might be expected. Would that be a good thing in the long view?

If the Bush/Cheney administration had hunted Bin Laden down and summarily executed him after 9/11, had not declared war against either Afghanistan or Iraq, would that have been a preferable reality? In my view it would. But it wouldn't have been copacetic according to the law.

I am glad to have this conversation. It is important that we at least pause to consider the moral ramifications of our actions. I wish we could live in a world of black and white, evil and divine. The longer I live, the more I discover that we don't.