A soldier can kill the enemy anytime until he is actually captured. Even with hand up and acting like they are surrendering is not good enough. WWII enemies sometimes acted like they were surrendering but instead were luring soldiers in to be ambushed. OBL was not murdered.
So, if a 5’2” woman who is in custody can steal a rifle and kill American servicemen, does that mean we should just line up every terrorist we have in custody against a wall and get it over with?
My problem is that, according to Leon Pannetta, this was a “Kill Mission”. The predetermined outcome was that Osama bin Laden would die.
Ask Vicki Weaver or David Kouresh what they think about US Government Kill Missions. Oh, wait a minute... you can’t... because they’re dead!
I have no problem with the military targeting leaders, or even common soldiers, anytime and anywhere. If we had pulverized this entire compound with 20,000 pounds of JDAMs, I would have had no problem with that.
But when somebody is rousted out of bed and is standing there with his hands in the air trying to surrender, you can’t just shoot him in the head, no matter who he is.
Is that the way this went down? I have no idea. In at least a few of the 72 versions were getting from the White House, he was shot while trying to surrender. But who knows?
But, according to Pannetta, that would not matter. Osama bin Laden was to be killed on sight, no matter what. It was a Kill Mission, and allowing him to surrender was not an option.
And, finally, I agree completely with Polybius’ point that the less said about this sort of thing the better. If I had my druthers, we would not even have annouced bin Laden was dead, and let the terrorists figure it out on their own.