# What if we had caught Osama alive?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-caught-osama-alive/580592>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 3, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-caught-osama-alive/580592 "2011-05-03T17:43:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Raintitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e99b99/32.png) [@Raintitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raintitan)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-caught-osama-alive/580592/61 "2011-05-05T03:17:43Z")

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Marley,

Good point on the administration and the overall atmosphere. In Dalton’s book the reasoning however was in line with the same challenges today. A trial and more humane attempt present more challenges and risks to public and international opinion as well as a series of events to incite more terrorism (capture, trial, sentencing, execution, appeals, so on).

R

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**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-caught-osama-alive/580592/62 "2011-05-05T07:09:59Z")

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> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> Do you figure the USA had something to gain if he were taken alive and interrogated?

Possibly. Probably, considering good ole’ American waterboarding other worthless scum helped catch him! But unless you kill him immediately upon capture like they did you can’t (easily) do it later. And in his case the political, big-picture factors of him not standing trial far outweighed the practical ones of him maybe giving up some intelligence.

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