By AMANDA VENDER
- PHOTO: U.S. Army
On May 1, President Obama announced that U.S. military forces killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The U.S. government accuses bin Laden of being the main person behind the September 11, 2001 attacks. In response to these attacks, the United States launched a war on Afghanistan, where bin Laden was believed to be hiding, and Iraq. These wars are ongoing.
Many people celebrated the news of bin Laden’s death feeling that justice had been served. For others, the announcement raised a lot of questions. “Why wasn’t he captured alive—and tried in a court of law?” asked Tariq Ali, a political commentator, on the news show Democracy Now!
Eight-year-old Ernesto Pena-Shaw of the Bronx, NY, agreed: “It makes me sad that innocent people were killed [on September 11]. But it’s not right that the U.S. killed Osama bin Laden. They should have asked him questions.”
Ten years since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, about 50,000 U.S. troops are still there. Jose Vasquez of the organization Iraq Veterans Against the War made this statement: “While it is right to remember those who died on 9/11, we should also be equally mindful of all those who have died as a result of our misguided wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The number of U.S. troops killed has topped 6,000 and estimates of civilian [innocent people] deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan range in the hundreds of thousands.”
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September 11, 2001 (9/11): The U.S. government says that on this day, Islamic extremists killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center in New York City, in Arlington, Virginia and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
i think this artical is actually very important to those who dont know much about osama bin ladins death.It actually helped me understand more information then what i already knew and yea it wasnt right to just kill right away.
Some lawyers say that bin Laden was murdered. Isn’t there a law against killing prisoners?