In-class Online Lesson 11

Good afternoon Mr.Lundberg and classmates, I am Etienne Lee from 2O4 and today I will be talking about the topic on whether the US should have shown mercy toward Osama bin Laden by imprisoning him rather than killing him.

Personally, I strongly feel that the US should have shown mercy towards Osama bin Laden by imprisoning him instead of killing him. Osama bin Laden was one of the world’s most dangerous and wanted terrorists; he had killed thousands of people. However, if the US chose to imprison him instead of killing him, there might actually have a better outcome.

Osama bin Laden was the leader of the extremely dangerous and infamous terrorist group, the al-Qaeda. He had many men under his control, and all of them acted according to his orders. His life was really precious to all the members of the al-Qaeda. By imprisoning Osama bin Laden, they could actually take him as a hostage. The US could use the leader of the al-Qaeda to negotiate terms with the al-Qaeda, and tell them that as long as they do not do anything to harm the world, Osama bin Laden will not lose his life.

If the US really imprisoned Osama instead of killing him, al-Qaeda would not dare to do anything which will harm the peace of the world, because they do not want to put their leader in harm. This will be very effective as without al-Qaeda trying to bring harm to the world, the world faces much less danger than before.

By imprisoning Osama bin Laden, the US could gain information about al-Qaeda. The US will then be able to come up with new methods to counter al-Qaeda now that they have better understanding of their operating and working style.

Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, al-Qaeda will have a lot of sorrow because of the death of their leader. In their anger, they might try to take revenge and carry out even more terrorists’ attacks. This will put the world in even greater danger than before.

Many people would rejoice and celebrate when they learn that Osama bin Laden is dead, but they did not think of the consequences. Now, there would be much more war in the world as al-Qaeda would go all out to seek revenge for their dead leader. There will also be more deaths of innocent people.

The US should be forgiving and they really should not have killed Osama bin Laden. This will only make the US behavior the same as Osama bin Laden; killing without showing mercy.

For the peace of the world, I feel that the US should have been merciful and imprisoned Osama bin Laden instead of killing him. Thank you.