Bin Laden is Dead

[V M]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_bin_laden

Well, how do you feel about it?

[JungianZoe]

Perfectly honest?  Sad.  Sure, he was a terrible person who did terrible things, but death is still death and killing is still killing.  The whole enterprise makes me sad.

I only celebrate the deaths of others when death releases them from physical torment and they go in peace.  All other death is mourned.  May not be a popular sentiment in this case, but it's still what I believe.  I'm sad that a human being died at the hands of another human being.

[Amy85]

I'm somewhat interested, but mostly in how this might affect the next election. Did Obama just get a big boost to his re-election chances?

[Joelene9]

  Now, now, lets keep it civil here.  I'm a moderate Republican and I think our President did quite well here.  The death of that murderer may not change things that much.  I don't see my nephews coming home anytime soon, but I bet their morale is high now!  Pray for them and their comrades.
  Joelene   

[Miniar]

It's a bit of an "all-over-the-place" thing for me.

There's the whole "I find it a little bit rude, at best, for american soldiers to hunt down people on foreign soil, often uninvited."
I mean, this bothers me...

There's the whole "well, now he's dead... at what cost?"
Think that it'll reduce terrorism? I doubt it..
In fact, I think that the pursuit of him across country borders is likely to result in new terrorists taking up the cause against who they perceive as an invading army.

There's also the whole "yay, a horrible human being is gone!"
I can't deny that little bit.

But then theres the most morbid and horrible thing of 'em all...
I'm playing "dead pool" with my family. What that is is a game in which we write a list of ten names of famous individuals who we "think" will die each year.
Osama Bin Laden is on my brother's list.
This means I'm going "Oh for fudge's sakes! I'm never gonna win!"

[Cindy]

I'm a bit in the so what category.

Is it going to bring back or comfort people who have suffered from his acts?

Does hunting down a person and killing them belittle our morals?

"we" claim to have the high moral ground but does that justify the acy of killing another person.

The bi laden's of the world have been turned into the USA hating people, or even western democracy hating people by years of acts that we have not addressed. In fact we have increased those acts.

I think Trump was reported as saying if we want Libya's oil we should go in and take it. This is how to create bin ladens.

I'm probably glad to see the back of him but how many more 'martyrs' will it create.

I lived in Liverpool during the IRA terror attacks. Killing them didn't solve anything, engaging in dialogue did, eventually. But killing is easy, dialogue is difficult.

Just thoughts

Cindy

[Arctic Kat]

After the attacks on 9/11, I had faith that America would bring justice to bin Laden.
At the time, I wanted nothing more than him captured dead or alive.

However, after a few years passed, I grew cynical of our government's ability to act.

Just after 9/11, America was the most united I had ever seen.
In the next few years, it became the most divided I had ever seen.
The Iraq war caused a lot of political infighting, whereas bin Laden was being forgotten.


Now that he has finally been killed, I'm reminded of the feeling I had after 9/11, when we were united.
Having accomplished a long sought-after mission, my faith has gone up.

Of course, we still have a whole lot of other problems to clean up, but I hope tonight's news will encourage us to stay committed to our missions.
His death isn't going to be the end of terrorism, but I feel satisfaction that justice has been served.

[Pica Pica]

Don't think it's got anything to do with justice but revenge - and dancing in the street about someone's death is induces queasy feelings. Imagine those people out side the White House cheering and banner waving all had beards and were chanting in Arabic over the death of an American person and the general reaction would be horrified.

[Cindy]

Don't think it's got anything to do with justice but revenge - and dancing in the street about someone's death is induces queasy feelings. Imagine those people out side the White House cheering and banner waving all had beards and were chanting in Arabic over the death of an American person and the general reaction would be horrified.

I think one of the scenes that upset very many Americans after 9/11 was the rejoicing of Palestinians in the streets.  Same thing. We will never deal with the World problems by killing. No matter how much satisfaction the death of a particular person gives. You cannot be unraped, you cannot be unmurdered. We need to deal with the problems no matter how unpalatable it is.

Cindy

[rejennyrated]

I have to admit that my thoughts were:

1. Unfortunately extremism just got another martyr.
2. Even so this is probably what the US should have done years ago instead of stirring up useless wars which we cant win.
3. Sadly this probably wont change much.

[justmeinoz]

I feel pretty much the same as I guess a lot of people did when they knew Hitler and Co were all dead. Sometimes people are just evil.

[Cindy]

I feel pretty much the same as I guess a lot of people did when they knew Hitler and Co were all dead. Sometimes people are just evil.

I'm thinking this is were it goes wrong for me. Hitler was a person who tried extermination of a group(s) of people because he felt that it made the world, his world, pure.

Were the Resistance movement in WWII terrorists? They were to one side, freedom fighters to the other.

I'm not making any apology for 9/11 or any other barbaric crimes. I've been very close to terror attacks. I've stood under a shower washing stuff off me that wasn't a part of me and throwing up at the same time.

But I think I'm coming from the position of effectiveness. I'm not sure that there is any evidence that Bin Laden was evil. He hated the Western Democracy's with a passion. Does that make him evil? He killed lots of innocent people, does that make him evil? "We' do the same. 'We" kill people now with drones etc, there is a compound lets fire a drone missile into it from XXX miles/kilometers away. It was success, we killed a high ranking terrorist.  The children and women who died are just a bit sad really.

I'm going to shut up.

Cindy

[Pica Pica]

Like killing Gaddaffi's son and some grandkids yesterday.

[Cindy]

Like killing Gaddaffi's son and some grandkids yesterday.

Yes. Sins of the Father?

And I know that I can have total argument against that comment.

I attended a birthday party for a 1 year old. When do you take on the sins of your father?

Our you are just cute until proved otherwise

Cindy

[Devlyn]

I couldn't be happier, unless they had put his head on a stick!

[Cindy]

I couldn't be happier, unless they had put his head on a stick!

I do this with the greatest respect. You have been a warrior. Why do you want to see a head on stick? What does that do?

Sorry I'm very definitely not trying to offend.


Cindy

[Catherine]

I am glad he has gone. I think there will be others who pick up where he left off. So it doesn't change a whole lot.

What I do struggle with is seeing Americans dancing in the streets celebrating his death. To me it really puts them on the same level as the idiots in the middle east who burn flags. I do understand the feeling of relief the Americans must feel but dancing in the street ?

[Ann Onymous]

I'm somewhat interested, but mostly in how this might affect the next election. Did Obama just get a big boost to his re-election chances?

I sure as hell hope NOT.  If anything, this claim that we had learned OBL was in Pakistan the whole time tells us that the continued presence in Afghanistan was a MAMMOTH error on the part of the military (of which BHO is the Commander in Chief). 

Further, as long as the economy is in the toilet, more people SHOULD look at those issues come next election.  We cannot afford four more years of BHO and the policies he has sought to ram down the throat over the objections of the populus.

As far as the death of OBL is concerned, I fully expect to see a spate of incidents over the next few months.  He was more likely a figurehead at this point in his life as opposed to a true leader.  By BHO making such a point of this having been a USA effort as opposed to a collaborative effort, he painted an even larger target on THIS country.

[Devlyn]

@ Cindy, I really don't need a head on a stick, once again I fall victim to posting first thing in the morning, or OUC: Operating Underinfluenced by Coffee! Is there a "caffeine filter" on these forums? I need it! Hugs, Tracey

[Julie Marie]

"The king is dead, long live the king." 

No, I'm not pro-terrorist.  All I'm saying is now that Bin Laden is gone there is already someone else who has taken his place.  Terrorism will live on.

What I know is the US and other countries made Bin Laden public enemy #1 and by taking him out we celebrate a symbolic victory.  Was he the mastermind he's been portrayed to be?  Or was he just another cog in the wheel of terrorism?  I don't know.  But the simple fact the US put out heightened terrorist warnings immediately following his death says killing him did little in winning the war against terrorism.

What I am much more excited about is the people who live in the countries where terrorists are born and bred have been standing up to their dictators, protesting against them and forcing some out of office and out of their countries.  A strong message is being sent that inhumanity will not be tolerated much longer. 

The grass roots efforts by the citizens of those countries will go a lot farther than the symbolic killing of one man.  Let's hope our leaders do the right thing to support these grass roots efforts and help make the changes permanent.