Extrajudicial killings exclude justice, by definition.

The killing of Osama Bin laden will titillate news consumers, foment American jingoism and almost certainly ensure the re-election of Barrack Obama. But it will not enhance American security, nor make the world a better place. The opposite is true.

'Justice has been done,' declared US President Barack Obama from the White House on Monday night. The killing of Osama Bin Laden was not justice. It was an illegal execution without trial. It was murder. It will lead to further death and destruction.

That is certainly the view of some here in Europe, including Anneli Hautala the Finnish chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament. Ms Hautala immediately questioned 'la nécessité qu'il y avait de le tuer' - the need to have killed Bin Laden rather than to have effected his capture.

The murder of Bin Laden was not an act of bravery or heroism. It was a continuation of the senseless barbarity that characterised the infamous attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001 and the many illegal invasions and attacks by the US that preceded this outrage.

'Tonight, I called (Pakistan's) President Zardari, and my team has also spoken with their Pakistani counterparts,' Obama said. 'They agree that this is a good and historic day for both of our nations. And going forward, it is essential that Pakistan continue to join us in the fight against Al Qaeda and its affiliates.'

Monday was a good and historic day only for those who support terrorism over justice and murder over fair trial. Had Bin Laden had been captured, charged and tried by a competent tribunal which weighed the evidence for and against those charges, the interests of global justice may have been served. But this is not the Pakistani or American way.

It has not been Pakistan's or America's way for some time. Both rogue nations have spurned international conventions to pursue their own forms of retribution. In so doing both have done profound damage to world peace and security.

Under Zardari's rule, the Pakistani army has carried out 238 extrajudicial killings of people in the Swat Valley since last September, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

HRW documents cases where Pakistani troops took away suspects, whose bodies were later found mutilated – killed without trial other than torture.

But Pakistani extra-judicial killings are small time in comparison with the US. The CIA has now been found to have plotted the killing of Dominican Republic president Rafael Trujillo in 1961 and to have murdered many other leaders of movements the US has perceived to be hostile to American economic or political interests.

We will soon know for sure how democratically-elected Marxist president of Chile Salvador Allende was killed in the CIA-backed coup in 1973. In February, a Chilean judge ordered the exhumation of Allende's body to determine the actual cause of his death.

Some of the methods currently used by the CIA to murder suspected terrorists were revealed by Newsweek in February. Human rights organisation Reprieve claims that up to 2,283 people have been murdered by the US since 2004 with as many as 730 victims 'wholly innocent'.

Many of these extrajudicial killings by the US and Pakistan have provoked further human death and misery in retaliation. All of them provide justification for extrajudicial killings by other powers – including Al Qaeda.

'No Americans were harmed,' the President said glibly. 'They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body'. Perhaps no civilian were killed on Monday night at in Abbottabad. But this was not the first attempt at capturing Bin Laden by military attack. Earlier failed attempts have certainly killed innocent civilians – at Tora Bora in 2001 and elsewhere.

For President Obama to claim the moral high ground is staggering hypocrisy. 'The American people did not choose this fight,' he said. 'It came to our shores, and started with the senseless slaughter of our citizens. After nearly 10 years of service, struggle, and sacrifice, we know well the costs of war. These efforts weigh on me every time I, as Commander-in-Chief, have to sign a letter to a family that has lost a loved one, or look into the eyes of a service member who's been gravely wounded.'

To claim this fight started in 2001 is just appalling self-serving cant. Since 1945 the US has intervened militarily in more than 40 countries in pursuit of its economic or strategic interests – 13 of them with majority Muslim populations. Many of these, including the recent invasion of Iraq, were in defiance of strong international judicial opinion.

The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have now claimed the lives of more than 7200 coalition service men and woman and countless innocent Iraqi and Afghan men, women and children. The American people most certainly did choose those fights.

Ending this evil of government-sanctioned murder must require all nations, including the USA, to desist. Only then can the rule of law operate to achieve international justice and peace. This requires the outrage of all citizens of the world – including those of the US – at President Obama's Monday announcement.

The United States currently faces enormous social and economic problems. Its days as a leading global superpower seem already past. That so many Americans are now celebrating an illegal assassination is a testimony to this sad reality.

Until the people and the leaders of the US and its allies recognise this, there will be more families to lose a loved one, and more eyes of service members gravely wounded the President will have to confront.