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The 1st and primary response to OBL is Force and Force alone. Until that Force neutralizes OBL's threats, your views on how to deal with him is irrevelent.
That Force cannot and will not promise you in what shape we will deliver OBL to you. What you civies do with him after we deliver him to you is your business but do not for one second dictate on how we are tol deliver him to you (ie, dead or alive).
Saddam's capture is the perfect example of what I am talking about. Saddam surrendered fast. However, if any later, I cannot and will not bring anyone up on charges for dropping a grenade in Saddam's hole.
At this point, since we delivered Saddam, what you Civies do with him is no longer a military problem.
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I would not want one coalition soldier to think twice about protecting themselves, nor their comrades in a choice between themselves and OBL. That is not my point. My point is not that he should be captured alive. My point is that should he be captured alive he should be tried, in public, with all the rights that he can be accorded. No show trials, no military tribunals. A proper trial. Let the world hear the man speak. Let the world hear his views. He will be convicted, not just by evidence, but by his own "teachings". Much as Saddam's image in the Arab world is lessened by the fact that he is alive, OBL's and Saddam's would be reduced to nothing by having to answer of their crimes.
If OBL wants to start waving the dangerous end of an AK at a collection of well armed squaddies i would want them to gun him down as quickly as possible to protect themselves. If Saddam had been blown all over his spiderhole by a standard issue grenade i would not have lost a moments sleep for the man. If a US soldier had died trying to capture him alive i would have.
I was, perhaps misguidedly, under the impression that the military were tools of the polticians. Therefore if OBL were to be captured military thinking is somewhat irrelevant to what the politicians want.
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As for Saddam's WMD. We know that he had them. We also know that there is no record of their disposal meaning that it was not done at a plant where it could be recorded.
That essentially leaves a very disturbing option. He either buried it or spilled it - ie an ecological timebomb.
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Only time will tell. We know he had them once. We thought he had them since. We may or may not have been right. We do not know either way yet.