THE Question Time panel last week agonised over the killing of Osama bin Laden, with Lord Ashdown particularly concerned as to whether international law had been transgressed.

The Geneva Convention and the orderly allied arraignment of the Nazis at Nuremberg were mentioned.

The two events are not similar.

Germany and the Nazis had been defeated by force of arms following a conventional war. The Germans and their top brass accepted this defeat and knew there would be a price to pay.

Furthermore, most Germans, and even Nazi party members, had performed their wartime roles out of a combination of duty, fear and expediency. Making the railways run on time was second nature, whether the goods were people, steel or coal.

Generally, however, they were rational and knew that they needed, however painfully, to look forward constructively.

Osama bin Laden, as a religious fanatic was not rational nor was he likely to accept the tipping point of defeat. Besides his fundamental beliefs, he was also a psychopath, an extremely dangerous combination.

Any attempt to arrest him would have given him the martyrdom he sought and would certainly have resulted in bloody international mayhem.

VJ Connor, Bishop Auckland