Osama dead

I think anyone who feels safer with the passing of Osama is very naive.

The US did not send three helicopters into Pakistani airspace and kill prime minister Yousuf Gilani, they killed a renowned and self-confessed terrorist leader, an ultra-conservative religious bigot of the very worst kind, a man who was happy to arrange the death of - and make recordings celebrating the killing of - men, woman and children, people's sisters and husbands, mother's and sons.

I'm not debating that. But if they have all this conclusive evidence, why the summary execution? If you do this then throw the body in the sea, as far as many will be concerned everything you just listed are unproven allegations.

Probably, so what?

So what? Because international law is there for a reason, because laws are what are meant to make the world a civilised place, because the other option is anarchy? Because by breaking them the US will have fostered a sense of injustice (again) in many people, which is entirely counterproductive?

The point is you don't pick and choose when you follow them, or follow the laws that suit you, you follow them all the time.

I guess the circus of a long protracted trial with Osama held for years on (possibly) American soil would have caused no end of problems, I can see why it might be better to simply kill him.

I can't see why it would be better. Expedient, yes. Right? No.

Which is essentially what I can see in your post here, (leaving your overly simplistic xenophobia aside) the Americans are cast as the baddies, the media guilty as their enablers and anyone who stands up to the US, regardless of what they do, regardless of whether their religious zeal takes apart the torso of a much loved 6 year old daughter or pulls the head of someone's father in two, they are, by virtue of standing up against the US, at the least to be given the benefit of the doubt.

It's amazing what a strongly held disdain for America can allow into even the most liberal mind.

It's not xenophobia, it's an observation about the cultural mindset of the US. I didn't say Al Qaeda should be given the benefit of the doubt, just that people who are alleged to be members or leaders should be given a fair trial, which is the right of any individual in a civilised society, irrespective of their alleged crimes. This is in no way an endorsement of the perpetrators.

Do you think the 'war on terror' was proportionate to the actual danger from terrorism, or do you think the danger was largely fabricated for other political aims?

Ha. I don't know because we have never been given the evidence on which it was based. But I do know that the effort put into the 'war on terror' seems to correlate with the risk, as happened yesterday.