Assassination of Osama bin Laden

Seven reasons the assassination of Osama bin Laden might prove to be a mistake:

• The Green Party believes the death penalty is wrong.
• Bin Laden should have been captured and brought to trial under international law.
• If questioned, he might have been a source of valuable information.
• Most of Al Qaeda's operations will continue as they would have done anyway. The organisation has always operated with regional leaders and a highly distributed network.
• Bin Laden himself was no longer a threat to world security.
• The assassination may well inflame tensions within the Arab world and beyond. Bin Laden may become a martyr in the minds of many people in the Islamic world.
• In the long run, it may well end up making the problem of organised terrorism carried out in the name of Islam worse, not better. The chances of reprisal attacks has to be high.