More Details on the Mob Hit of the Century

So it seems that our intrepid Navy SEALs were in such an intense situation and in so much immediate danger from Osama bin Laden that they had time to move two women out of the way before shooting him in the head:

As three of the SEALs reached the top of the steps on the third floor, they saw bin Laden standing at the end of the hall. The Americans recognized him instantly, the officials said.
Bin Laden also saw them, dimly outlined in the dark house, and ducked into his room.
The three SEALs assumed he was going for a weapon, and one by one they rushed after him through the door, one official described.

Two women were in front of bin Laden, yelling and trying to protect him, two officials said. The first SEAL grabbed the two women and shoved them away, fearing they might be wearing suicide bomb vests, they said.

The SEAL behind him opened fire at bin Laden, putting one bullet in his chest, and one in his head.

I've seen the results of suicide bomb vests, and if those SEALs really believed those women might have been wearing them, then I am forced to call the competence of SEAL Team Six into question. You don't "shove away" suspected suicide bombers. You shoot them in the head. You can't shove them far enough to make any difference, especially not inside a building.

But of course they suspected no such thing. SEAL Team Six is supremely competent and carried out precisely the mission they were assigned- go in and kill Osama bin Laden while sparing women and children as much as possible. Dead women and children make terrible propaganda, and the last thing the United States needed was its great triumph marred by pictures of dead kids. Given the fact that we've abandoned trial by jury for those designated as enemies of the state, capturing him would have been a propaganda nightmare- trying him in a civilian court would raise questions as to why we couldn't try all the people down in Guantanamo Bay in civilian courts, but he was much too prominent to 'try' and execute quietly in a Gitmo kangaroo court.

But let's leave aside the moral depravity of executions without trial and focus on the propaganda side of it. Osama bin Laden waged most of his war in the media. As we've seen in the videos found in his compound, he was obsessed with his image. Can you imagine the devastating damage that would have been caused to his image when we all watched Osama bin Laden, supreme terrorist mastermind, leader of jihad and sheikh of the mujahideen, doing a perp walk in and out of a Manhattan courtroom every day? Seeing him surrounded by cameras and microphones as U.S. Marshals hustle him down the steps?

Leaving aside entirely the harm done to our own system of justice by the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and the drumhead trials held there, we are granting these people the legitimacy they seek by treating them as if they are somehow special, above the regular criminal justice system. If instead of waterboarding and secret confinement Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had faced a perp walk every day and become just another trial on the docket, with the murderers and tax cheats and other ne'er-do-wells that fill the federal courts, he'd have been broken. If we'd treated Osama bin Laden like a common criminal, we would have defeated him far more completely than we ever could on the battlefield.