Day 277

So, we killed Bin Laden I guess. Apparently the rest of the world found out last night, but I didn’t hear about it till this morning. I have mixed feelings about it. Part of me wants to go, “yay! We got him” but another part keeps saying, “Wow, it only took us ten freaking years, we must have been trying really hard” and yet another part of me goes, I hate when people get killed.

I know that sounds kind of jerkish of me, but really, why did it take us ten years to find him? I was just reading a report about the compound he was hiding in. We suspected he was hiding there since August and just finally made the move. Now I understand that we’re under scrutiny from the rest of the universe about our War on Terror, but if the rest of the world already hates us then I don’t really see why we had to wait so long if we already pretty much knew where he was? Ohh well, at least we got him, right?

Maybe I’m just being bitchy again though. It is really good to try and know for sure before we make a move. If you’re playing chess you need to have as much knowledge as you can about the board, the pieces and your opponent. Though, it does seem like ten years to find the guy was a little long to go without real progress. Ohh well, at least we got the bastard, now it just a matter of finding the rest right?

I know that a lot may get a little pissed at me saying something about not liking that he got killed, and I’m sorry for that, but I don’t like when anyone gets killed, even if they are an asshole. It is hard though, because when someone dies it is never good. However, sometimes it is nice to know that there is no worry of any more terror.

There is a lot of unhappiness happening around the world because of this whole thing, on many different levels. I know that there is a lot of emotionally charged stuff happening for people, after what happened on 9/11 who can blame people right? To me however, I think some of these things are a little lame. I saw some posts on Facebook about it. One really stuck out to me, it was by a friend, she’s really sweet and nice, but I don’t know how I feel about her comment. She said

Am I the only one who finds it strange that you’re all cheering for someone’s death? It’s sick really… no justice happened here, just cold blooded killing that somehow you find justified because he was sick enough to kill too. Two wrongs DON’T make a right.

I just don’t know how I feel about it. I agree a little that people should never cheer for death, however, it is more complicated in situations like this. I liken it to regular, plain old murder (as if there is such a thing right?). No one wants to se a murderer get away. When we watch movies, we see the bad guy, we know he’s the bad guy because we saw earlier in the film when he killed a bunch of people. At the end of the movie we see the bad guy get killed by our hero, and we are happy that good has once again won over bad. We are always cheering for the hero, we always want to see him/her come out victorious over evil and we’re happy when the bad guy dies because we know he’s not coming back to wreak havoc again.

I know that it is a stretch for me to relate this situation to that of a movie, but the fundamental feelings I believe are the same. Whether it be in a fictional tale, or in reality, we want to see people safe, happy and we like to see justice served.

I am sure that some are still saying I’m an idiot and I don’t know what I am talking about. But okay, lets look at things just a little differently again. Let’s pretend that you’re married, and then let us pretend your spouse is brutally killed, and you know exactly who did it. You don’t know where they are, but you know they are alive out there and the person you loved is dead and gone because of the horrible thing this person did. You search and search for them; ten years later you finally find them, what would you do? Do you really think that you would be able to contain your anger, that same anger that built up for ten years when you met that person face to face? I don’t know if I could.

Still not convinced? Neither am I, really. But let’s take that same hypothetical situation and when you meet that person, they have a gun and are firing it at you?* You’d shoot the hell out of them wouldn’t you? I would be willing to bet that Osama was putting up a fight when he was shot. If you think he was calmly chilling on his ass smoking a hookah when the team stormed the compound and then threw his hands up in the air and told them he would go quietly, then you need to get your head checked because you either got hit in the cranium with a hammer or you’re a fucking idiot.

I dont know if it is okay to cheer for Osama’s death, but I know we need to remember that another person will be taking his place soon enough, so we still need to be wary.

There are way too many avenues for me to try and explore in order to find a definitive answer ethically. I am sure that it is one of those crazy things that I will constantly have mixed feelings about, because I don’t believe that there is a solid answer on the ethical standing of the issue, some would say eye for an eye, some would say that doesn’t apply anymore. Some may say that it is murder, some would say self defense, others still may say it was justified. But I know only one solid answer when it comes to this whole thing…

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

I would like to add a little more to this post, I know that I dont usually do this, but I was browsing around, then went and checked out the featured content on WordPress and I found Bear Lawyer, LCC © 2009-2011 Thomas E. Körp.  On day number 158was the following:

…For what it’s worth: Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, let him be gone. Remember those lost with no small fondness, but let the hatred and fear inspired by one angry man’s unconscionable iniquities be forgotten amidst the waves of that wide and accommodating sea to which he has been interred.

Justice has been served, however imperfectly. Let life go on.

I just wanted to share that with you all, I feel that the statement is very well written and in my opinion very accurate and such.  I especially like the final line there, I think that we can all agree that sometimes justice is imperfect, but at least it is served.

*Correction: I recently read that he was armed and defended himself, however OBL was not firing at anyone.