And He Was a Lousy Father

Steve Coll in The New Yorker:

Omar bin Laden, a younger son of Osama, left his father in Afghanistan in 1999 and later co-wrote a memoir with his mother, Najwa, a cousin whom Osama had married when he was seventeen and she was fifteen. In the book, Omar wrote that he had lost faith in his father as a young adult in war-ravaged Afghanistan when Osama suggested that he had his brothers consider taking up suicide bombing in the Taliban's cause. The boys demurred; Omar never got over the request. "My father," he wrote "hated his enemies more than he loved his sons."

I find myself in complete agreement with this, from Ta-Nehisi Coates:

There's been a lively debate going on about the legality of killing Osama Bin Laden, in terms of both American and international law. The debate is necessary, intelligent and important. And I do not care.

Most of the time I am a strong defender of civil rights and limitations on government violence, but there are situations in which that is all just words.