New Stanek poll: Do you condone the assassination of Osama bin Laden, even if he was unarmed?
I have a new poll question up:
Do you approve of the assassination of Osama bin Laden, even if he was unarmed?
Vote on the lower right side of the home page.
The previous poll question is now a mute point. We know the government did not shut down over a showdown on defunding Planned Parenthood. And most of you agreed with that outcome…
Click on the map to enlarge to find your own brightly colored flag, although only the most recent 500 votes will show…
As always, make comments to either the previous or current poll here, not on the Vizu website.

He would have been a threat as long as he was alive.
….like at the end of an advertisement…”I approve of this assassination”
I see very, very little good coming out of capturing and trying the guy.
Pigs have flown, EGP. I actually agree with you.
Come to think of it, if we are to believe the latest revision of events, there were weapons close to OBL, it’s just that he didn’t have them in his hands at his final moment.
So he was armed, just in a very remote sense.
I’m not sure I buy the question. He said he was at war with the USA, and did a lot to substantiate that statement. The US seems to have taken him at his word. In war, the principal job of the soldier is, as an RAF pilot put it to me once, “to kill the enemy and break his stuff”. Of course, if the enemy surrenders, a civilised army will take him prisoner. But in the heat of battle it’s hard to determine who’s surrendering and who’s planning a nasty surprise; and it doesn’t seem as though Osama DID try to surrender, at least not in the unequivocal way that you would want such a dangerous man to do. The SEALS were fighting an enemy known to be dangerous and unpredictable, a long way from their base. They quite rightly didn’t take any chances. War is very terrible, but it is different from assassination.
Gee, golly, in one week Obama comes to realize that Donald Trump could actually beat him at election time. Trump forces Obama to publish a birth certificate, thereby emasculating him. Obama responds by assassinating the man that Obama wanted brought to the US and given a cushy civil trial with all it’s rights and protections for the alleged criminal. Now the Obama kool-aid drinkers are celebrating that he’s got the re-election in the bag. What a bunch of phoney BS. No, I don’t approve of the timing of the assassination nor the lack of published evidence that it took place. I don’t condone gory death photos all over for children to see, but we should have been shown something.
Maybe some of the kool-aid drinkers are fooled and think BO is some kind of hero, that he actually gives a rat’s bum about the victims of 9/11. Not the rest of us.
He was responsible for the deaths of thousands. Were any of them armed?
Personally I think we should have held on to OBL’s body and threatened to feed it to dogs, even better pigs, if one more American dies in a terrorist attack.
How did the Chinese put an end to piracy of their ships? They lined up the pirates and shot them all in the head execution style. Guess what, no more piracy.
Yes war is dirty business and your opponents will respect only one thing. You are as dirty as they are.
Ninek
— Ummmm, Trump trails Obama by nearly 25 points in a head to head hypothetical.
— I’ve seen people who say this will help, but seen no article from any credible organization or source (I’m sure there’s somebody out there in the fringe – but heck, with “birhters” and “deathers” out there, there are a lot of fringe people these days!) say Obama has it in the bag now. All depends on who the GOP runs and what the economy looks like in a year.
–Do you believe that Bin Laden is dead?
Don’t know. But Happy Mother’s Day everyone!
“No, I don’t approve of the timing of the assassination nor the lack of published evidence that it took place.”
Oh, that’s too bad. Maybe next time the White House can coordinate its assassinations with you ahead of time so that their timing and results are more to your liking.
As for the poll question, I don’t see much of a distinction between what happened and a drone strike or missile attack, both of which are commonly-used tools in the counter-terrorism toolbox. It would also seem to me that there are entirely prudential reasons for not wanting the most notorious terrorist in the world to be in American custody, as it could very well renew jihadist sentiments, in a way that announcing “oh, by the way, Osama bin Laden is dead and has been buried in accordance with Islamic burial rites” simply wouldn’t. I think the White House has handled the entire thing pretty well, up to and including its decision not to release the photos of bin Laden’s corpse.
It makes no difference to me how or when bin Laden was killed. However, timing made a big difference to the unqualified celebrity living in the White House. Barak Hussein Obama finally approved killing him to get himself back in the good graces of his fans. You may think he’s a hero. That and 5 bucks will get you a cup of coffee.
I don’t need to see proof that bin Laden is dead. But the reason we’re not being shown anything is because Barak Hussein Obama is afraid to do it, not because it would be in poor taste. He is afraid of our enemies and afraid to offend them.
I think that a weasel who is afraid to offend our enemies is a yellow-bellied coward.
Okay, well when you say “I don’t approve of” such and such thing, that usually means that it does make a difference to you.
And of course it makes a difference to Barack Obama. He’s a politician. Staying in the good graces of his constituents is how he keeps his job.
Here’s a napkin, Joan, to wipe that purple mustache off your lip. ;>)!
I haven’t read the other comments so I don’t know if anyone pointed this out, but it was good that he was killed while UNarmed, not while armed, because if he had been killed while armed, he would have been considered a martyr.
As for a “trial”, there was no doubt as to his guilt. The only people who were not convinced of his guilt were people who literally sought to blame America, a.k.a., “Truthers”, many of whom have been facilitated by Ron Paul. Never forget that.
I sometimes wonder how politics colors people’s personal morality. If Osama Bin Laden had been killed at the order of a Christian pro-life president, I wonder if Christians would be so quick and vocal to question how this was all done. Put another way, I wonder if some people are more opposed to the killing of Bin Laden, a man who committed acts of war against the United States, because it was ordered by Barack Obama, the abortion president, as opposed to President X, the anti-abortion president.
At the same time, had President McCain removed Osama from the field of battle, you know that the democrats would be wailing about the miscarriage of justice.
A terrible act was perpetrated against America. It was America who brought an end to that perpetrators devious acts. Nothing left to say. Time to move along.
I disapprove. He should have been captured, and then tortured for a year, then killed.
Ninek – the crazy people who don’t believe he was killed wouldn’t believe he was killed even with photo evidence. Heck, some people still don’t believe in the moon landing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOo6aHSY8hU
Like I said, I don’t need proof… to see Obama’s yellow belly!
phillymiss,
Thank you. Happy Mother’s Day to you as well.
It really a shame that we live in such a violent world where some people must be killed, because they pose a threat to other people. Osama bin Laden was one of those people. I’m sorry about it (especially since I know he wasn’t saved and no doubt went to hell), but on the other hand, I also see that it was necessary. He deliberately killed thousands of people and he wasn’t sorry. He wanted to kill more. If he’d been allowed to live, he would’ve killed many more.
I can hardly wait for Christ to come back and put an end to all the fighting and killing.
Even more sad than bin Laden’s death is that he wasted his life on violence, hate, death, and killing. That was even more of a waste than his death. But he lived by the sword and he died by the sword.
For those who would criticize me for not rejoicing in his death, there is a Scripture (I don’t remember the exact place) where God says that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked might repent and turn from their ways. I wish Osama bin Laden had done that. It’s too late for him now.
I accept what happened but don’t actually condone it.
That would be ‘pragmatism’ on my behalf, something not often demonstrated here.
“Do you approve of the assassination of Osama bin Laden, even if he was unarmed?”
Well all (most?) of the victims of 9/11 were unarmed.
Cecilia
In response to your 5:06 post. The scripture is Ezekiel 18:23. Without judging Obama’s motives it makes me sad too that bin Laden was killed. My solution for such criminals would be for them to be put in a jail where they would be at the mercy of decent people so they could learn to trust again. I think spiritually your response is probably a lot healthier than most. Another prayer though I do pray is when an individual has been given the opportunity to change and they just refuse and continue to bring harm to their environment is that there own badness would pay them a visit.
I am glad that most agree with choice number. I am VERY disappointed that the majority thought PP funding was not worth holding out over.
Evil, left unchecked, eventually becomes a cancer that overwhelms. God, in his mercy to Noah and his family (and by extension to the rest of us), wiped out all the others from the face of the earth.
Justice must prevail.
I cannot see how one could even hold a trial in OBL’s case, because unlike Saddam Hussein, he was not a head of state. OBL was like a pirate who has all to many willing to die for his cause.
It’s clear the Obama administration did not think through the PR on the outcome (even though they had copious amounts of time) – unlike the SEAL team that considered all contingencies. I also think we never would have heard of the event if the SEAL team did not lose the helicopter in the compound. It would have been a local mystery and perhaps some international speculation, but highly unlikely AQ would have said Osama was kidnapped.
Seriously – the BHO admin knew about this compound since last August, yet they come across as being completely incompetent in breaking the story? Or is this all meant to be completely confusing to everyone, including the American public? This has me more concerned than the actual killing of Bin Laden. Sort of like the bizarre overflights of Air Force 1 in NY.
For anyone who thinks it’s even possible to capture and detain terrorists – remember, they have no problem wiring themselves with explosives to take out their potential captors.
For all we know OBL might have had a remote in his hand – whether it was a TV remote or a detonator, is immaterial. He’d need to be standing stark naked with his hands in the air for them to even consider taking him – but even then – AQ in 2009 tried using body bombs. He could have had an IED in his room. We won’t know.
AQ doesn’t play by the rules of war – therefore, the only rule that prevails – the one they completely understand, is their utter annihilation.
One last thing – I thing what we’re seeing/hearing is the stage being set for a larger production to be revealed.
I didn’t find any of the choices expressed my position on this. “Assassination” is really not the correct word. This is not cops and robbers, it’s a war, started by OBL and his associates. This was a wartime raid, not a crime bust. Different standards apply. Considering the suicide tactics that have been often used by Al Qaeda, I would think that killing him would have been the only safe option for our guys.
Sadly, we live in a society full of educated morons believing a diploma makes them smart.
OBL had declared war upon the USA well before September 11, 2001; so a hot lead washout of OBL’s skull met the “jus in bello” terms.
And should anyone dismiss Catechism of the Catholic Church definitions of “just warfare;” then I highly recommend adoption of this culturally sensitive dispatch of OBL’s corpse to Satan. The subject swine’s corpse is cloaked within a gutted hog, and fed to a hungry pack of cannines.
@Jill: Not an answer to the poll question, but it’s “moot point.” ;)
I’m sorry that so much death has been the outcome of the attack on the US. I believe that there has been a reaction among some of us which has been disgraceful, not to mention very like the behavior of Obama’s supporters. Dancing in the streets and celebrating the killing of a man is disgusting.
I struggle with this issue. On the one hand, Obama was a threat to many many innocent people and I support neutralizing the threat. On the other, I don’t believe that his death was necessary and I do believe that it is an indication of our strength when we do not feel forced to resort to a violent end for our enemies. Forgiveness and compassion are some of our greatest weapons in this world. I am not, of course, advocating for blank-slate forgiveness for war criminals, but I do believe that the threat which is Osama Bin Laden could have been handled without his death, and I do believe that it should have been.
I admit, too, I feel concerned that we may have created an AQ ‘martyr’.
We do not do what is right because it is gratifying or because it feels good or because it is easy. We do what is right because it is good and right. Good for us, good for God, and good for life.
I really like the Vatican’s statement on this. Very wise. I agree with Mary Rose’s statements.
Oh my, I have made that oh-so-easy-to-make mistake not once but twice of using a certain US President’s last name rather than a certain Al Qaeda terrorist’s name. Freudian slip, I suppose. I would not have our President assassinated either, though both men will be held responsible for the deaths of innocents before the Judge.
“I don’t need to see proof that bin Laden is dead. But the reason we’re not being shown anything is because Barak Hussein Obama is afraid to do it, not because it would be in poor taste. He is afraid of our enemies and afraid to offend them.”
Afraid? You’ve got to be kidding me. The president actually ordered the killing of the most wanted terrorist in the world, he approved a daring raid that would have made Hollywood blush; he had the armed forces prepared for war with Pakistan if need be to pull it off, and he did it all while keeping a cool head and a great poker face. (just days after making Trump look like a bigger fool than usual).
He fed OBL to the fishes. And you think he’s afraid of “offending” people. This, my friend, is what strong leadership looks like. What would McCain have done?
In July 2008, CNN’s Larry King interviewed then-presidential candidate John McCain. The host asked the Republican senator, “If you were president and knew that bin Laden was in Pakistan, you know where, would you have U.S. forces go in after him?” McCain said he would not. “Larry, I’m not going to go there and here’s why: because Pakistan is a sovereign nation.”
Hal,
Your ‘bromance’ is showing.
In your unchecked gush of infatuation, you temporarily [I hope] let go of your most redeeming quality.
Your penchant for brevity.
But I understand.
I have not forgotten what it was like to be twitterpated.
But I still wince when I remember the outlandish things I said and did while I was under the spell of cupids arrow.
Next time someone accuses me of being racist because I disagree with our celebrity president, I’m going to say, “Why? Because he’s yella’??”
What would McCain have done, he asks. Gee, so-proud-to-no-longer-vote-republican, what did your boy Clinton do to bin Laden? Oh, that’s right, a big fat nothin’.
Barak Hussein Obama isn’t showing any kind of leadership: he’s afraid to offend bin Laden’s minions. Coward. And he didn’t risk his life to go after him, the Seals did. They are the heroes. Obama’s just a suit with a cell phone.
I’ll be brief. Obama good President. Successful raid. No screw ups. Bad guy dead. Americans rejoice.
oops – i did not even realize the name mix-up in MR’s statement. I think a telecaster did that on the air, too. oh well.
Hal,
b o ‘good president’?
Really?
I will give him credit for not screwing things up and at least giving the impression that he made the right decision.
Please see misery index and compare b o’s first two years with other former presidents.
Even though the inflation rate that is being reported right now is a transient factoid, when the true number, like the unemployment rate, can no longer be sucessfully manipulated, b o is not comparing well to his predecessors.
I did see, first hand, one American rejoicing.
He was standing on an bridge over the south bound lanes of I-35E exhuberantly waving an American flag while a cold north wind was blowing and it was pouring rain.
While I was relieved obl was dead, it was no more a cause for celebration for me than when George ‘killer’ Tiller exited our time and space reality. The only question is whether both barbarians share the same fate.
There was at least one ‘screw up’, the helicopter crash. Hard to imagine at least one member of the raiding party did not get injured as a result. It does not diminish the out come of the mission.
All in all the ‘mission’, as reported in it myriads of representations, none of which seem totally plausible, was a ‘success’. obl is either dead or enjoying the accomodations of a ghost prison where he is being data mined by some very determinend interigators.
It is good thing b o has a personal trainer and I hope has given up smoking. Other wise all those victory laps and spiking of of the football, would be exhausting to the point of complete incapacitation.
The momentary 3 point hickup in b o’s approval rating has probably already been erased and it has resumed it’s downward slide into the abysmal zone.
‘Love is blind’, but at least you still have your brevity.
Ken the Birther -
Of course Obama’s not comparing well yet – he inherited an economy on the brink of disaster. At about this point in Reagan’s presidency, Reagan had seen unemployment go from 7.6% to 9.8%. It takes time to turn things around – and is harder when common sense is hijacked by boneheads like John Bonner.
I think though, it is obvious, Bush’s tax cuts failed. We are under the same tax rate economic system that came into play in 2003 - and the jobs next came that were promised. I think we need the rates of Clinton and Reagan – they had pretty low misery indexes.
By the way, do you believe the moon landing was real, or fake?
Hal, do you believe the moon is made of green cheese?
According to news reports, one of bin Laden’s minions is now blathering on about making us miss bin Laden. The celebrity president’s response is:
“Bawk..bawk..bawk…BEEYAWWK!”
Ken, take a look at this chart
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/05/boehners-demands-ctd.html
Any part of that stand out for you?
A) quite a crystal ball he’s got there
B) you haven’t replied about the moon being made of green cheese. But, since I’ve seen you milling about NASA with a box of crackers in your hand, I think I can guess…
C) Hotel Gitmo is still open. Maybe they’ll take you on as consierge.
WASHINGTON —
President Barack Obama’s approval rating has hit its highest point in two years – 60 percent – and more than half of Americans now say he deserves to be re-elected, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll taken after U.S. forces killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
ninek,I didn’t know you were looking for a serious answer.
Hal, LOL, I’m having a little fun teasing you and Ex-G, but seriously, just because some of us wanted a little satisfaction, doesn’t mean we’re conspiracy theorists. Yes, a gory picture splashed everywhere would be in poor taste, however, the celebrity yammered on and on about “transparency” during his campaign but the only thing transparent about his actions is his discomfort with competition and his empty-but-huge ambition.
He wasn’t elected for his abilities but for his celebrity by a whole lot of tabloid-loving fans who wanted to brag that they helped elect the first multi-racial president. He’s not black, he’s only half black, and half white, and 100% yella! Doh! Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Hi Hal.
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/11/poll-showing-highest-obama-approval-in-two-years-has-flaws/
“The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted May 5-9 with 1,001 adults nationwide and it has a 4.2 percentage point margin of error. While polls of adults typically yield more favorable results for Democrats like Obama than polls of voters or likely voters, several conservative pundits note the survey has significant shortcomings….
Jim Geraghty of National Review notes the polling sample AP used is problematic.
“It is of adults, which isn’t surprising … you don’t have to be a registered or likely voter to have an opinion on the president,” he writes. “But then you get to the party ID: 46 percent identify as Democrat or leaning Democrat, 29 percent identify as Republican or leaning Republican, 4 percent identify as purely independent leaning towards neither party, and 20 percent answered, “I don’t know.”
“For contrast, the AP’s immediate preceding poll was 45 percent Democrat, 33 percent Republican; the likely voter pool in October 2010 was 43 percent Democrat, 48 percent Republican. The poll’s total sample in October 2010 split 43 percent Democrat, 40 percent Republican,” Geraghty continued. “With a poll sample that has a 17 percentage point margin in favor of the Democrats, is anyone surprised that these results look like a David Axelrod dream?”
Ed Morrissey of HotAir, also weighed in on the skewed polling sample.
“Move over, CBS. Hang up the kid-leather gloves, WaPo/ABC. There’s a new sample-skewing sheriff in town, and it’s the Associated Press.,” he said, calling the poll an outlier. “Oddly — or perhaps not — the AP report doesn’t include a link back to the survey’s raw data. In order to find it, one has to go to GfK’s site for its AP polls. The partisan breakdown in the sample is found about halfway through the PDF, and it explains a great deal about how Obama managed to get such a high boost in this poll while others showed shallow bumps that had already started to subside.”
Morrissey says the 17-point gap favoring Democrats in the poll is “more than twice what was seen in the 2008 actual popular vote that elected Obama.”
“It’s pretty easy to get Obama to 60% when Republicans are undersampled by almost half,” he says. “Frankly, this sample is so bad that no real insights can be gleaned from it.”
Hal,
Thanks for the graph.
It illustrates how expensive war is.
It illustrates what happens to revenues when the economy falters.
Reagans and b o’s approach to a recession, if not opposites, are divergent at the least.
Two more years of the same counterproductive measures implemented by b o and progressives/liberals will not yield a different result than we are seeing right now, except the probability that the economy will be in worse shape.
If the republican’s who were recently elected to congress fail to keep their campaign promises about lowering taxes, reducing spending and eliminating wasteful and counter productive federal programs, then they will suffer defeat at the polls. There will be more new faces and a new speaker of the house and senate majority leader. The new faces of leadership are not likely to be democRATs.
The most recent elections demonstrated american adults are unwilling to return democRATs to power and the children who voted for b o are disillusioned with their first Irish/Kenyan president. They have seen that b o’s words are as empty as the suit he wears. Do not look for them to return to the polls in siginificant numbers and the ones who do return are not likely to be fooled again by the progressive/liberal scatulation.
Even the mush brained liberal catholics who suspended disbelief and blindly trusted b o and voted for him are not likely to return to the polls in their former numbers. Most will choose NOT to vote. b o’s and the democRAT’s only hope is to recruit/seduce undocumented workers to vote for them.
But condescending and arrogant fools that they are, the democRATs wrongly believe the spanish speaking people to be ignorant peons who will believe whatever they are told.
Most of these illegal immigrants have already voted with their feet and left the socialist paradises of Mexico and Central America to come to the land of opportunity.
Why would they knowingly and willingly change it into the very likeness of the failure from which they have fled?