I'm thrilled we blew Osama's face off and I don't care what term anybody wants to use to describe the effort.
But, it is fun to tweak the liberals and their hypocritical elation at this "murder."
Ask them what they would do if George Bush unilaterally ordered a team of hired killers into a sovereign nation to shoot a confused unarmed old man in the face, murder those around him, then whisk his body off and toss it in the middle of the ocean, then refuse to release any video or photographs of the event. Would they be cheering and high fiving then?
Then ask them if the Swedes should give Obama another medal.
“Ask them what they would do if George Bush unilaterally ordered a team of hired killers into a sovereign nation to shoot a confused unarmed old man in the face, MURDER (emphasis added) those around him, then whisk his body off and toss it in the middle of the ocean, then refuse to release any video or photographs of the event. Would they be cheering and high fiving then?”
Now you are using the term “murder.” We should choose our words carefully, just as should the reporter. We are in a war, Osama was an enemy commander, and Osama was apparently killed by a SEAL team. From the confused statements coming out of the White House, I am not sure we can be confidant of much more than that.
There may be a possibility that Osama was murdered. If he was trying to surrender at the time he was shot, if the shooter knew Osama was trying to surrender, and if the shooter knew that shooting Osama was not necessary for the safety of the SEALs, then maybe the correct term would be “murder.” However, I certainly do not know the nuances of U.S. and international law. For example, it may be that the President can lawfully order the execution of an enemy commander during wartime, even if the enemy commander is trying to surrender and the execution is not necessary for anyone’s safety (I doubt that the President can lawfully do that, but I do not know). What I do know is that the SEALs deserve every benefit of any doubt and neither any of us nor the ditsy reporter knows what happened; and therefore, we need to be careful about the words we use.