# How would you punish Osama bin Laden?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [October 27, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526 "2004-10-27T19:55:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/61 "2004-10-28T12:55:48Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#):
>
> Terrorists, of course, not being human.
Humanity rests in the soul, not the body.
No, terrorists are not human.
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### Author:  [@Roseworm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roseworm)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/62 "2004-10-28T12:58:42Z")
“Hate-filled dyslexic prick”? I take exception to that, my good **SentientMeat**. I take great pride in my good grammar and articulation. I am most certainly _not_ dyslexic. You owe me an apology for that.
I thank you, though, for the link to Leo Strauss, the father of neoconservatism. I notice that he was born in 1899. Why, then, did you refer to neoconservatism as a “2000 year old philosophy”? Your arguments are poor and I am deeply suspicious of your motives, sir.
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/63 "2004-10-28T13:00:57Z")
> [@Shrinking Violet](#):
>
> Humanity rests in the soul, not the body.
>
> No, terrorists are not human.
Problem is that it’s kinda hard to tell them apart from the humans, looking so similar and all.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/64 "2004-10-28T13:01:43Z")
> [@Roseworm](#):
>
> For the record, terrorists have no rights whatsover under any known body of national or international law, including the Geneva Convention. Technically, they can be summarily executed and they can be tortured. Especially they can be tortured. The fact that we treat captured terrorists with any decency at all is due simply to good manners.
You have no fucking idea what you’e talking about.
There is no category of “terrorist” which is either defined under the Geneva Convention, nor excluded from it. There is no category of human being whatsoever which is excluded from the protections of the Genveva convention. There is no class of humans which it is legal to torture.
The word “terrorist” has no legal meaning. It’s just a rhetorical term, not some technical class or category of human for which there is any licit justification for torture.
You also still have to prove people committed crimes in a court of law before you can “punish” them. That’s the way it works in civilized countries.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/65 "2004-10-28T13:03:23Z")
> [@Shrinking Violet](#):
>
> Humanity rests in the soul, not the body.
>
> No, terrorists are not human.
What kind of stupid shit is this? What the fuck is a “soul?”
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### Author:  [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/66 "2004-10-28T13:07:22Z")
**Roseworm** , if you wish to convince me of your reading ability, you must read the _actual words I write_.
[Neoconservatism’s basis.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Republic)
[Afghan freedom fighter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden#Afghan_Jihad).
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/67 "2004-10-28T13:14:07Z")
> [@Shrinking Violet](#):
>
> No, terrorists are not human.
Yes, yes, we can all score soaring rhetorical points that don’t pertain to the subject at hand.
The subject at hand, of course, is whether terrorists may technically be tortured. Technically, under the Geneva Convention, they may not be, any more than Bosnians may be tortured if their Serbian tormentors don’t consider Bosnians to be human.
Daniel
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### Author:  [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/68 "2004-10-28T13:20:38Z")
Put him through some rigamarole designed to convince him that he’d been in suspended animation for a couple of centuries, and set him up in a Potemkin village where every Friday service consists of breast-beating apologies for the evils of 20th-21st century Islam and resolutions to be more sensitive and accomodating to the feelings of women, gays, and the differently-religious (uttering the “I-Word” is simply not done!).
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/69 "2004-10-28T13:24:17Z")
> [@Roseworm](#):
>
> My point is this: Hate is our ally.
>
> The War on Terror is just beginning. It may last for another 100, 200 or 300 years. Without great courage and strength of will, we cannot prevail. Hate will give us that strength. Hate will keep us alive.
I honestly don’t think it will; hate will _consume_ you alive - you have set out to turn yourself into the evil thing that the terrorists might currently (falsely) believe you to be, for no actual gain; Hate won’t stop terrorism, it will just suck you down alongside it.
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### Author:  [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/70 "2004-10-28T13:27:52Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#):
>
> What kind of stupid shit is this? What the fuck is a “soul?”
I’ll get back to you on that when I’ve found a way to successfully describe the colour red to a blind person.
But don’t hold your breath.
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/71 "2004-10-28T13:29:16Z")
If convicted of murder, he gets life in prison with no parole. If we wish to inflict revenge, put a life size poster of Dick Cheney in the nude on each of his cell walls.
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### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/72 "2004-10-28T13:34:39Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#):
>
> The subject at hand, of course, is whether terrorists may technically be tortured. Technically, under the Geneva Convention, they may not be, any more than Bosnians may be tortured if their Serbian tormentors don’t consider Bosnians to be human.
>
> Daniel
Actually, in most cases, the Geneva convention wouldn’t apply to terrorists, except if they happen to be caught while fighting in a war or by an occupation power.
The article 5 of the UDHR would be more relevant, in most cases.
Apart from that, a number of posts in this thread are so full of crap that it would be pointless to debate their utter stupidity.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/73 "2004-10-28T13:36:45Z")
> [@clairobscur](#):
>
> Actually, in most cases, the Geneva convention wouldn’t apply to terrorists, except if they happen to be caught while fighting in a war or by an occupation power.
>
> The article 5 of the UDHR would be more relevant, in most cases.
You are of course right. The stupidity in the thread is apparently contagious, and I was conflating the two. My fault.
Daniel
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### Author:  [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/74 "2004-10-28T13:38:58Z")
Life imprisonment.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/75 "2004-10-28T13:44:11Z")
> [@Roseworm](#):
>
> The obvious aim of the Soviet Union was to occupy a sovereign nation (Afghanistan) in order to gain access to a warm-water port.
Gorbachev was in charge after the Soviets left Afghanistan. Consider one tiny bit of your ignorance eradicated. 🙂
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### Author:  [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/76 "2004-10-28T13:44:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I’ll get back to you on that when I’ve found a way to successfully describe the colour red to a blind person.
Electromagnetic radiation of wavelength between 625-740 nm which, when incident on cone cells in the retina transmit a signal, via the optic nerve, chiasm and tract to the lateral geniculate nucleus and on to the [visual cortex](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_cortex) which compares the sensory input with past memory in order to recognise ‘red’. One of these elements doesn’t work in your case, so you can’t see.
What is a soul?
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### Author:  [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/77 "2004-10-28T13:49:13Z")
**SentientMeat** , I want to have your baby.
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### Author:  [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/78 "2004-10-28T13:51:45Z")
I’ll bring it round later, **PG**.
Although there’s not much left after **DocCathode** ’s visit.
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### Author:  [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/79 "2004-10-28T13:58:32Z")
> [@Priceguy](#):
>
> **SentientMeat** , I want to have your baby.
If he wasn’t such a PITA, I’d agree.
😃
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2004, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-punish-osama-bin-laden/271526/80 "2004-10-28T14:10:52Z")
> [@clairobscur](#):
>
> Actually, in most cases, the Geneva convention wouldn’t apply to terrorists, except if they happen to be caught while fighting in a war or by an occupation power.
Actually, you’re wrong. The Geneva protections apply to all human beings. The only question is whether they would be treated as POWs or as civilians.
Despite the claims of the White House, there is no special exclusion for “terrorists” (a legally meaningless term) or for “unlawful combatants” (defined by the White House as anyone we attack who isn’t wearing a uniform).
There is no loophole in the GC or in international law which allows for torture. None.
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