Resolved: Targeted killing is a morally permissible foreign policy tool.

Contention 1: Osama Bin Laden While this is a well known fact in the United States, it still needs to pointed out and addressed that on May 1, 2011 U.S. Navy SEAL team six completed a mission of assassinating Osama Bin Laden, one of the most well known terrorists to the average U.S. citizen. Criteria 1: Can you prove anything? Everyone has told their fair share of jokes, including me. They are usually funny if they are worth sharing, but when telling this joke I did not give credit to anyone. Of course why would I credit anybody? It makes me seem funnier and more original. This is a very typical attitude of an average person, and who is to say Osama Bin Laden is any different? Theoretically, what if he took the credit of 9/11 even though he didn"t organize it? The only "proof" the United States has is a claim by Osama Bin Laden. I think killing him could be appropriate given proper fair trial by a U.S. court. Criteria 2: The Sixth Amendment Right to a fair trial In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed; which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence..... Where the crime is committed is where it should be tried... Should Americans be the jury? No because we are all "victims" of the attack. We would definitely say "Death to Osama". Contention 2: Its easier to learn from your own mistakes than those of others. Its harder to feel the pain or trials of others than to remember your own. Criteria 1: Presidential Replacements Friday April 14, 1865. A day that many know the event, but not much else. On that night a play was held At Ford"s Theatre entitled Our American Cousin. The Lincolns, Abraham and Mary Todd, were in attendance. During the play actor John Wikes Booth assassinated Mr. Lincoln. While the nation was devastated, vice president Mr. Andrew Johnson, stepped up to become the 17th president of the United States. July 2, 1881, a lesser known attempt at assassination. James A. Garfield was shot in the chest. He lived until September 19, 1881. After his death vice president Chester Alan Arthur became the 21st president of the United States. November 22, 1963, a very well known event, the day John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot in a parade in Dallas, Texas. Just like the other two presidential assassinations before him, Vice President, Richard M Nixon, took place as the 37th President of the United States. Now take in mind this: Each one of these three presidents were assassinated, and each time the Vice President stepped up to the spot of president. Lets say Al Qeada has the same principle. When a leader, or in our case the president, dies or is killed, a new leader will step up in their place. So killing Bin Laden allowed for new leadership. Did killing Osama Bin Laden help the U.S. in anyway? Nothing more than the satisfaction of revenge. Osama Bin Laden was familiar to citizens and if anything it was easier to predict his tactics, if he was responsible for the given attack. Criteria 2: Isoroku Yamamoto Dont recognize the name? Don"t feel too lost. He is the Osama Bin Laden of WWII. Let me briefly explain who he is. Isoroku Yamamoto was The Japanese Admiral who led the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. He played a major role in WWII but very few would be able to tell you much about him. Take in mind this: Mark Twain once said "History never repeats itself, but it often rhymes". I had to sit and think about this quote for sometime before I fully began to understand that this runs true as north. I have an excerpt from militaryhistory.about.com about Isoroku Yamamoto: "On April 14, 1943, Fleet Radio Unit Pacific intercepted message NTF131755 as part of project Magic. Having broken the Japanese naval codes, US Navy crypt-analysts decoded the message and found that it provided specific details for an inspection trip that the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Isoroku Yamamoto, intended to make to the Solomon Islands. This information was passed to Commander Ed Layton, the intelligence officer for the Commander-in-Chief of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Meeting with Layton, Nimitz debated whether to act on the information as he was concerned that it might lead the Japanese to conclude that their codes had been broken. He was also concerned that if Yamamoto was dead, he might be replaced with a more gifted commander. After much discussion, it was decided a suitable cover story could be devised to alleviate concerns regarding the first issue, while Layton, who had known Yamamoto before the war, stressed that he was the best the Japanese had. Deciding to move forward with intercepting Yamamoto's flight, Nimitz received clearance from the White House to move forward." Four days later on April 18th, 1943, The Ariel plan Operation Vengeance took place and Isoroku Yamamoto was killed mid-flight, but the war continued years after until we used brute force against entire cities. The point is Yamamoto was the leader of a major attack on U.S. soil, almost identical to the way Osama Bin Laden led an attack. We killed Osama, but which city will we have to bomb to end this war? Both were killed by U.S. force, but most of us only remember one. Criteria 3: We killed Osama More on Media Hype than Probable Cause. Similar to my previous criteria, this criteria deals with WWII, and the reason for that is that Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are the two most significant attacks on U.S. soil, but the main difference is Pearl Harbor wasn"t blown out of proportionality, well at least not anymore. You see while the U.S. was being attacked during Pearl Harbor, they still tried the best they could to fight off the Japanese planes. Afterwards instead of dwelling on the dead and giving up due to lack of Navy equipment, they turned into a manufacturing powerhouse. When the U.S. was being attack on 9/11, just 10 years ago, we sat in fear and cried due the feeling of helplessness. Isoroku Yamamoto was killed just over two years after the U.S. entered the war, Osama Bin Laden made it through two wars, and wasn"t killed until nearly ten years into the second one. This war that we still fight today is the longest fought in U.S. history, the only two years the United states has not bombed Iraq since the declared end of the gulf war was 1994 and 1995. This has cost nearly $1 trillion dollars of taxpayer money just since September 11th 2001. Take all that from our dying economy and you have a bigger disaster than the Stock market crash of 1929. You cannot blame just one person for the help of many, but by killing Osama Bin Laden, we just did. "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The only way to end evil is simply to love. I would like to finish this debate with one last quote "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln. I stand in Negation to this Resolution and hope that I have convinced you to do the same as well.