To respond directly to your points:

While I too am glad that Karovich is captured, he was truly practicing genocide. Bin Laden is practicing terrorism. There's a difference.

Okay, so what's the difference? The number of dead? OBL is charged with the death of hundreds of civilians in Kenya and Tanzania, and would also likely be charged with 9/11 which killed 3000. Tim McVeigh was responsible for fewer deaths and look what happened to him. So, how many would OBL have to kill before you would demand some sort of justice?

Now think of this: Bin Laden is not a head of state. If we had merely offered a price on his head -- say 200 million -- he'd be dead.

There is a price on his head. Several, I believe. One if for $25M, but there are others that add to this.

You tell me, why should be be in Afghanistan?

To prevent it from becoming a failed state run by totalitarians who will harbor international criminals as it was before.

Consider this example. You live next door to the Hells Angels (as they were in the 60s). The house is a drug den (and not the good kind) and the scene of rapes and violence. What do you do? Accept that it's their house to do what they want, or call the cops? So you call the cops. They come over, arrest a couple guys, and the party continues. What do you do then? Dust off your palms and call it a day, or call the cops again to come and get these guys out of the house next door?

Justice is good, but it shouldn't cost so much. When the quest for justice (or really revenge) so burdens ordinary people, how is that justice?

Justice is a very primal concept in human nature, and everyone strives for it. Shouldn't cost so much?? Damn, we know which side you would have been on in the revolutionary war (and BTW, your support for Hillary is clear as a bell now). Do you know how much of your taxes go to pay the cops in your local town? Let's just cut that program, you can have your money back and buy yourself a bigger teevee, no?

OBL doesn't mean that much to me, personally. I don't seek revenge on him. I can see his objective, and in some ways it is a just cause. In some ways, the neocons' cause is also just. However, when you break laws and kill innocent civilians in pursuit of your cause (whatever that cause is), you have to be accountable. I'm less concerned with OBL, actually, as I am about the Taliban regaining power. Before you knew where or what Afghanistan is, back in the 90s, we were actively petitioning the Clinton Admin to do something about the Taliban and the horrible atrocities they were committing there to their own people. Of course, Bush got in and gave them $70M in return for their statement "the poppy is against Islam" (4 months before 9/11). Great.

If you want to live a peaceful life, ignoring injustice is not going to get you there.

Currently in most civilized societies, we have a code of justice and cops and courts to enforce that code. This keeps us all in line and is crucial for any sort of functioning society.

No such thing really exists on the international scale. The ICC is a start, but as we see it's not enforcing a code of justice that everyone observes. So for now, might continues to make right. This has to change.

If we're going to ever get beyond constant war, from minor skirmishes to genocide, then we need an international code of justice under which everyone operates and everyone is accountable. This would see both al-Bashir and Bush spending the rest of their miserable lives in prison, and would send a message to other would-be criminals that they will suffer for their own crimes. This will create a functioning global society.

So, AKA Smith, retreating back to our borders is not the solution, unfortunately. I'm against war and violence the same as you are, but I think I understand the phenomenon with a more long-term perspective. Wars will still rage on, and the effects will be felt here and elsewhere. We need a civil global society. To that end, ideally, al-Bashir would be frog marched to the Hague and would sit in a cell adjacent to Bush and Cheney. (I'd be interested to know who winds up on top in the inevitable shower situation.)

Everything is a Hobson's Choice with you. Why is this so complicated?

1. Even if you wear a tinfoil hat and don't believe OBL had anything to do with 911, his mass murder of hundreds of Kenyans and Tanzanians qualifies him as genocidal.

2. If he was respoinsible for 911 then I think the mass murder of 3,000 people is an act of genocide for which he must be held accounted for. Several thousand mass murders seemed to qualify Karovich for war crimes.

3. Bush condoned and allowed OBL to get away with his mayhem, chose to allow thousands of Americans to die in complete vain for his petty political goals. Why not close the book on OBL and Zwahiri so we can focus on the real war criminals in the Bush Administration? Its not like it would be hard to do.

4. Again you catastrophize to such a hyperbolic extreme. Put up a bounty? Fine. Send in 20 commandos into no mans land in Pakistan? Fine. Whatever works. You seem to think that by trying to bring one guy to justice that equals a militaery draft, WW3, invading wrong countries, a hundred years of horror and war.

I'm saying take that fuck out, take out Bush's best buddy. It would be a snap. Your buying into Bush spin if you think he runs a collossol underground megacomplex like Doctor Evil.

(You had to resort to Hitler?)

While I too am glad that Karovich is captured, he was truly practicing genocide. Bin Laden is practicing terrorism. There's a difference.

Think about all the money that we have spent on Iraq and Afganistan. Think of all the lives lost. Now think of this: Bin Laden is not a head of state. If we had merely offered a price on his head -- say 200 million -- he'd be dead.

The idea that we have to engage in these wars and increase our presence in Afganistan in order fight Al Queda is as short-sighted as it is inefficient. Why are we continuing? The answer has to be something besides Bid Laden.

You tell me, why should be be in Afghanistan? Why should we disturb the sovereign goverment (such as it is) of Pakistan to get Bin Laden? Justice is good, but it shouldn't cost so much. When the quest for justice (or really revenge) so burdens ordinary people, how is that justice?