Jeremy Corbyn would have arrested Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Jeremy Corbyn must have been missing from the planet during the week US Delta Force special operations troops raided the compound home of Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in northwest Syria. The Labour leader who thinks he is going to be the next British prime minister, has criticised the US military over the death of Baghdadi. In a radio interview he said it was his view that Baghdadi should have been arrested and brought to trial because that was the way true democracies worked. He made similar comments when Osama bin Laden was killed at his secret compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan in May 2011. Well, all fine and dandy, Mr Corbyn, in a world where the bad guys, when confronted by the police or military, just put up their hands and say, "Ok, guv, you got me, I surrender." But as Corbyn should know if he had bothered to read the reports of Baghdadi's demise, Delta Force commandos DID try to persuade Baghdadi to give himself up. He had run down a dead-end tunnel under the compound with two of his children in tow hotly pursued by Conan, one of the military dogs that Delta Force commandos brought with them, and at least two special operations soldiers who shouted to him to surrender. They never fired a shot at the trapped Baghdadi. But as soon as Baghdadi realised there was no way out he detonated his suicide vest killing himself and his two children. He did not die under a hail of bullets. The soldiers were under strict instructions to avoid civilian deaths, specially as they knew there were several children living in the compound. So the US military did not kill Baghdadi. Baghdadi killed himself and sacrificed his two children in the process. Under what sort of scenario does Corbyn think the Delta Force commandos could have arrested Baghdadi? The Osama bin Laden killing was different. Two US Navy Seals had started to climb the stairs up to his bedroom when the a-Qaeda founder appeared at the top. Assuming he was armed, the lead commando shot him dead. Now, theoretically, they could have asked him nicely to lay down his arms, whether he had a weapon or not, and put his hands up. But there had already been shooting exchanges when Seal Team 6 arrived at the compound by helicopter. It was in the middle of the night. Expecting Bin Laden to come quietly was fanciful. It would have been a split second decision. Under the circumstances, the fatal shooting of Bin Laden was justified and unavoidable. Corbyn has no experience of war and clearly does not understand the extreme dangers of mounting operations of this kind. In the case of the Baghdadi raid, Delta Force did not even go hunting for the Isis leader until they had safely evacuated all the unarmed civilians from the compound. It was an immaculate operation. During the counter-terrorism war in Northern Ireland, the SAS, Britain's Delta Force, was sometimes accused of operating a shoot-to-kill policy, laying ambushes for IRA terrorists and killing them. There were certainly many instances where SAS units WERE involved in fatal shootings. But statistics show that the SAS was responsible for more arrests than deaths during the 30 years of the Troubles.