Osama Bin Laden Dead

[Milkman delivers]

I was 11 during the events of September 11th. Like my peers, it was one of the most vivid days of my life. I remember being completely shellshocked about the events and what I was seeing. Up to that point, I was taught that America was the greatest, invincible. All of the sudden, that changed in an instant. We went from world-conquering power to being under attack by some random guy thousands of miles away. This was pretty damning to an 11 year old to take on and understand. It has definitely had a lasting effect on me.

 

 

Fast forward a decade, we have been in multiple wars that in hindsight people think were pretty pointless. We caused one of the greatest economic downfalls ever. And now this. I don't think people were necessarily celebrating to celebrate the death of Osama. Rather, we were celebrating because America did something great, something that no one else could apparently do. Something that was a decade in the making. For the first time in my generation's life, we could celebrate the greatness of our country. And that's a good thing.

 

I'm loving these posts in the last couple of pages. This is some good stuff. I was 16 when it happened and we were practicing for intramural football during homeroom. We came back to our class and the whole school was silent. For a few minutes, we were completely oblivious to what had gone down. I remember walking past other classrooms and noticing that every student and teacher was staring in awe at their TV's.

 

It's ridiculous to see people arguing whether or not Osama bin Laden was as bad as Hitler Who cares? The fact is that this is a time for all of us to come together, not necessarily as a celebration, but just to feel that sense of unity and maybe even relief. Some people are having more fun with it than others, and yes, some things are over the top. But this is a once-in-a-lifetime event that really has the potential to bring us together and heal some old wounds. I think we should enjoy this feeling while it lasts.

[Balta1701]

If Obama or Bush were killed there would be a lot of people in other countries celebrating in the streets since we killed thousands of innocent civilians in the last decade.

The interesting thing is though...the American reaction to that sort of celebration would be seething anger.

[StrangeSox]

I find the open celebrations a little off-putting.

[Steve9347]

I'm loving these posts in the last couple of pages. This is some good stuff. I was 16 when it happened and we were practicing for intramural football during homeroom. We came back to our class and the whole school was silent. For a few minutes, we were completely oblivious to what had gone down. I remember walking past other classrooms and noticing that every student and teacher was staring in awe at their TV's.

 

It's ridiculous to see people arguing whether or not Osama bin Laden was as bad as Hitler Who cares? The fact is that this is a time for all of us to come together, not necessarily as a celebration, but just to feel that sense of unity and maybe even relief. Some people are having more fun with it than others, and yes, some things are over the top. But this is a once-in-a-lifetime event that really has the potential to bring us together and heal some old wounds. I think we should enjoy this feeling while it lasts.

I was 18 and working for MCI (taking night classes my first semester). I was informed as it was happening while on the phone on the East Coast with someone trying to sell them long-distance.

 

Obviously the building closed soon thereafter since it's hard to sell long distance during such an event. I was glued to the television and and with my family the next few days. It was very, very surreal, and obviously very, very awful.

[Buehrle>Wood]

The interesting thing is though...the American reaction to that sort of celebration would be seething anger.

As it should be. I'm sure Al-Qaeda is angry that people are celebrating the death of their leader.

[Jenksismyhero]

I never said I could make a compelling argument that they are the same thing.

 

I said I could make a compelling argument why some one dancing on the street over a soldiers death was similar to some one dancing on the street over Osama's death.

 

If a soldier killed your family (accidentally) and then he was killed, Im sure there are people that would dance in the street. It doesnt matter what the intention is, it matters what the end result is. Both men caused the death of innocent lives.

 

I am just not so bold as to blindly believe that I am on the right side. For all I know, we are the ones going to hell.

 

Its easy cheer when you have always been the majority, it is much harder to cheer when you are in the minority and you can remember (not personally but historically) when people were cheering the death of your people.

 

So we should equate American values with terrorist values? I mean, I get your point here that perspective matters, but we're talking about the world's #1 most wanted terrorist. He's not some innocent civilian caught in the cross fire.

[RockRaines]

As it should be. I'm sure Al-Qaeda is angry that people are celebrating the death of their leader.

Well, they are a terrorist organization, its safe to say they are always angry at something.

[greg775]

The fact you would even compare Bin Laden to Hitler decreases the terribleness of Hitler.

 

Bin Laden was no Hitler, Bin Laden was a terrorist who got lucky. He killed at most 10,000 people. Let us not forget that when we compare him to some one who systematically killed millions of people.

 

So yeah, Passover teaches us to be glad, but not celebrate. Hence my earlier statement, I am glad, but I am not celebrating.

 

Actually I never celebrated either, but I smiled as I watched people on TV celebrating.

As far as your first sentence, that is mean spirited.

Why does that decrease the terribleness of Hitler.

Both were motherf***ing assholes.

Yes I'm comparing him to Hitler. I'm not saying he was worse than him or anything.

I don't see any harm in celebrating. If that's a sin, well God created imperfect beings and I guess I committed one there.

Edited May 2, 2011 by greg775

[BigSqwert]

Here's a photo of me (tall guy in the middle) on my first work trip with Sears. This was 9/13/01, two days after the attacks. We were stuck on Long Island during the attacks, about 30 or 40 miles from ground zero. Airports and ferrys off the island were shut down so we were stuck there for a few days. Finally on the 13th they opened up the ferry and we left for a long drive back to Chicago. We caught a glimpse of the smoke bellowing from ground zero from the ferry.

 

I remember seeing the twin towers as were were descending to land on the night of 9/09. We had planned to go do some sightseeing on the 12th and possibly check out the towers.

 

[Jenksismyhero]

I find the open celebrations a little off-putting.

 

Seriously? I just don't get this. Sure, there might be a celebration that went a little TOO far, but something like that Mets/Phillies game last night really moved me. Thousands of people slowly getting the news from their phones and then chanting USA. That was awesome IMO. Same with people gathering at the White House and Ground Zero and countless other places singing God Bless America. Those types of acts show that the country is still united.

[Balta1701]

@baratunde:

Bin Laden used wife as shield http://politi.co/m1vJJq #WorstHusbandEver

 

Worth pointing out for factual reasons alone...that's not what Counterterrorism Czar Brennan exactly said, although that'll be the headline. He said m ore along the lines of "When she fought back and there was an opportunity to get bin laden, she was positioned in a way that indicated she was being used as a shield." He doesn't know whether she placed herself there, whether the son placed her there, or whether Osama put her there. He only knows she was used as a shield (by someone to protect Osama.)

[Jenksismyhero]

Can we all agree on this at least:

 

“I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”– Mark Twain

[Milkman delivers]

Seriously? I just don't get this. Sure, there might be a celebration that went a little TOO far, but something like that Mets/Phillies game last night really moved me. Thousands of people slowly getting the news from their phones and then chanting USA. That was awesome IMO. Same with people gathering at the White House and Ground Zero and countless other places singing God Bless America. Those types of acts show that the country is still united.

 

I'm sure you get it. I get it. It is strange that people would celebrate a death, but that's not stopping me from doing so.

[StrangeSox]

Seriously? I just don't get this. Sure, there might be a celebration that went a little TOO far, but something like that Mets/Phillies game last night really moved me. Thousands of people slowly getting the news from their phones and then chanting USA. That was awesome IMO. Same with people gathering at the White House and Ground Zero and countless other places singing God Bless America. Those types of acts show that the country is still united.

 

 

Well I think that was the off-putting part, really.

 

I don't want to get into it right now, there's good reason for people around the world, not just Americans, to find joy and comfort in his death.

 

I'm sure you get it. I get it. It is strange that people would celebrate a death, but that's not stopping me from doing so.

 

This, more or less, combined with singing "God Bless America" because we shot our enemy in the head is unsettling to me.

Edited May 2, 2011 by StrangeSox

[kjshoe04]

Can we all agree on this at least:

I would hope so.

[BigSqwert]

Teacher who vowed not to shave until bin Laden was caught or killed finally shaves

[Milkman delivers]

Can we all agree on this at least:

 

Haha, I f***ing love Mark Twain.

[StrangeSox]

Can we all agree on this at least:

 

 

Haha, I f***ing love Mark Twain.

 

 

Yes and yes.

[Buehrle>Wood]

Teacher who vowed not to shave until bin Laden was caught or killed finally shaves

...good thing he wasn't mistakenly killed.

[BigSqwert]

Andrew Breitbart, a prominent right-wing commentator with close ties to the Republican Party and the Tea Party, is pushing the theory on his website Big Peace.

 

On Breitbart’s website, J. Michael Walker, suggests Obama take a number of extraordinary steps so he can “make sure [Osama] is dead.” Pictures are apparently not enough. Walker asserts that he needs to be able to “walk right up to bin Laden’s corpse and view it.” More:

The free world, particularly the United

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, ha

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a right to ma

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ure O

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ama bin Laden i

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really dead. Every American ha

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right up to bin Laden

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corp

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e and view it. We are entitled to

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–

bin Laden

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na

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ed, bullet-riddled corp

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hould be put on di

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play in lower Manhattan for all the world to

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ee. The entire body

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hould be digitally

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canned, in

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ide and out

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and made available for everyone to ta

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e hi

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or her own picture.

 

Walker ads that “For us Doubting Thomases out there – we need to see in order to believe.”

 

via

[GoSox05]

Even if they put his corpse on display some people wouldn't believe it was him. Some people are dead set on conspiracy theories.

[Jenksismyhero]

via

 

I don't know that his body needed to be paraded all over Manhattan, but I agree with the photo part. It'll do more harm than good being kept secret.

[Jenksismyhero]

I think it's pretty wild that Obama and his advisers watched the whole thing as it happened live. Wonder if that tape, or portions of it, will ever be released.

 

Edit: they won't say what they watched, but I thought i saw earlier that ABC had some footage of the seals landing and firing into the compound.

 

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/20...-wh-522011.html

 

 

Edited May 2, 2011 by Jenksismybitch

[Buehrle>Wood]

If they didn't kill him, Osama would have a video out today, doing his best Truman impression.

[BigSqwert]

There is ample reason to feel relief that Osama bin Laden is no longer a threat to the world, and I say that not just because I was among the many congressional staffers told to flee the U.S. Capitol on 9/11. I say that because he was clearly an evil person who celebrated violence against all whom he deemed "enemies" -- and the world needs less of such zealotry, not more.

 

However, somber relief was not the dominant emotion presented to America when bin Laden’s death was announced. Instead, the Washington press corps -- helped by a wild-eyed throng outside the White House -- insisted that unbridled euphoria is the appropriate response. And in this we see bin Laden’s more enduring victory -- a victory that will unfortunately last far beyond his passing.

 

For decades, we have held in contempt those who actively celebrate death. When we’ve seen video footage of foreigners cheering terrorist attacks against America, we have ignored their insistence that they are celebrating merely because we have occupied their nations and killed their people. Instead, we have been rightly disgusted -- not only because they are lauding the death of our innocents, but because, more fundamentally, they are celebrating death itself. That latter part had been anathema to a nation built on the presumption that life is an "unalienable right."

 

But in the years since 9/11, we have begun vaguely mimicking those we say we despise, sometimes celebrating bloodshed against those we see as Bad Guys just as vigorously as our enemies celebrate bloodshed against innocent Americans they (wrongly) deem as Bad Guys. Indeed, an America that once carefully refrained from flaunting gruesome pictures of our victims for fear of engaging in ugly death euphoria now ogles pictures of Uday and Qusay’s corpses, rejoices over images of Saddam Hussein’s hanging and throws a party at news that bin Laden was shot in the head.

 

This is bin Laden’s lamentable victory: He has changed America’s psyche from one that saw violence as a regrettable-if-sometimes-necessary act into one that finds orgasmic euphoria in news of bloodshed. In other words, he’s helped drag us down into his sick nihilism by making us like too many other bellicose societies in history -- the ones that aggressively cheer on killing, as long as it is the Bad Guy that is being killed.

 

Again, this isn’t in any way to equate Americans who cheer on bin Laden’s death with, say, those who cheered after 9/11. Bin Laden was a mass murderer who had punishment coming to him, while the 9/11 victims were innocent civilians whose deaths are an unspeakable tragedy. Likewise, this isn’t to say that we should feel nothing at bin Laden’s neutralization, or that the announcement last night isn't cause for any positive feeling at all -- it most certainly is.

 

But it is to say that our reaction to the news last night should be the kind often exhibited by victims’ families at a perpetrator’s lethal injection -- a reaction typically marked by both muted relief but also by sadness over the fact that the perpetrators’ innocent victims are gone forever, the fact that the perpetrator's death cannot change the past, and the fact that our world continues to produce such monstrous perpetrators in the first place.

 

When we lose the sadness part -- when all we do is happily scream "USA! USA! USA!” at news of yet more killing in a now unending back-and-forth war -- it’s a sign we may be inadvertently letting the monsters win.

 

via David Sirota for Salon