And lobbing bombs at each other is a far different situation than standing in a room with someone pointing a gun at them. The Geneva Convention makes a distinction. In an all out fire fight people are going to die, of course. But that is completely different than asking the question, could they have captured him instead of killing him.
The issue I have is just the total disregard for even considering the possibility that maybe we did something wrong in all this. Not that it is not wrong that OBL is dead or captured, but as per international agreements and laws, if we simply executed him if there were no threat, that would be wrong.
And I thank God we have "rule of law" people that are willing to speak out. If we did not expect the government, or each other, to follow the rule of law, or if we did not hold people accountable to the law, where would we be as a country or a society? Even if we don't always agree with or like the laws. We can't just pick and choose which ones we follow because we think one guy is worse than another.
No one answered my original question. At what point does the law break down, do our personal ethics break down, and we find it acceptable as a society to step outside the laws and just give in to the blood lust for revenge? How bad does the offense have to be, or how mad or outraged do we have to be to justify ignoring the law in our desire for vengeance?