Osama Bin Laden Is Dead.

[OldTrees]

I just saw video of people celebrating with flags outside the White House. I'm disgusted. If we saw anyone from the Middle East celebrating like this on TV we would call them animals. We would be afraid of their unbridled hatred for the US. But here we are. We can hate him, say we are glad he is dead, but stop making a spectacle. We did what we had to do. It should make us sad we ever had to do it.

Maybe, but we don't have an unbridled hatred for the middle east. We are celebrating the death of a murderer and a madman. In fact for many people, it's not so much that we are celebrating his death as a celebration of a victory (however big or small it may actually be) in our war on terrorism. I don't think it's a fair comparison.

Considering how little effort went in to understanding why the terrorists though we were their enemy prior to 9/11, I do not think the comparison based on miscommunication/perception is unfair. We might know that we do not celebrate his death and rather are only celebrating the victory but that does not mean that we communicate that.

This discussion reminds me somewhat of the "free speech vs terrorist response" arguments. While it might be wiser to show a more reserved demeanor, imo a defeat for evil is worth celebrating, and should we really limit our actions based on the responses of unreasonable people? It feels like a slippery slope.

Since we are fighting an ideological war with the power to give the enemy more troops, yes we should limit our actions to ones that are helpful in preventing more casualties.
Celebrating is okay as long as it is not interpreted by young impressionable civilians as something that needs to be opposed at any cost.

[tyranim]

you say osama bin ladin, i think "um... ok?"
you say osama bin ladin is dead, i think "WOOOOOOHOOOOO! F*** YEAH! USA! USA! USA! USA!" but then i proceed to say "um... ok?" 3 weeks later . i get bored easily

[Neopergoss]

I was very impressed by this. (http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/2/one_killer_killing_another_journalist_and)

...The first thing that struck me was seeing the Americans out in the streets celebrating outside the White House, outside the old World Trade Center site, people cheering, people exultant. And while some of that may come from bloodlust, I think a lot of it comes from a sense of justice.  But if we recognize that someone who is willing to kill civilians en masse...if we say that someone like that deserves to die, then we have to follow through on that idea, and we have to recognize, OK, if these things really are so enormous, we have to stop them. Killing bin Laden does not stop them. Bin Laden is dead, but the world is still governed by bin Ladens. People cheer because they thought they saw justice, but this was not justice delivered by—a kind of rough justice delivered by victims. This was one killer killing another, a big killer, the United States government, killing another, someone who’s actually a smaller one, bin Laden. And the bin Laden doctrine that, to take out the CIA office that was at the World Trade Center, it’s OK to blow up the whole World Trade Center, to teach Americans a lesson, it’s OK to slaughter thousands of Americans—that doctrine lives on in the American White House, in the American Pentagon. You know, every day—and in seats of authority all over the world.

Every day, the U.S., directly with its own forces, or indirectly through its proxy forces, its clients, is killing, at a minimum, dozens of people. I mean, just since Obama came in, in the one limited area of drone strikes in Pakistan, something like 1,900 have been killed just under Obama. And that started decades before 9/11...

[BluePriest]

So does anyone think Pakistan was very aware of Bin Ladens location and just not revealing it to the US?

[Genuinous]

So does anyone think Pakistan was very aware of Bin Ladens location and just not revealing it to the US?

Who do you say Pakistan is? Bin Laden was often moving around in various middle eastern countries. Some people must've known...

[BluePriest]

Pakistanian authorities. Do you think his presence was well known, and that someone leaked the intelligence of where he was that wasnt suppose to? I havent been keeping up with it, so it could be old news and proven not true since I last looked at the news.

[Nepycros]

So does anyone think Pakistan was very aware of Bin Ladens location and just not revealing it to the US?

With a military base/training camp/whatever just 1000 yards away from the compound, I would think so.

[Genuinous]

I'm not well informed to say what's true.... They might've or might've not.... I was merely wondering who did you mean when saying Pakistan

[tyranim]

(this may sound like a dumb question)
did we really throw him in the ocian? i heard they did on kong chat

[Nepycros]

(this may sound like a dumb question)
did we really throw him in the ocian? i heard they did on kong chat

Yep. We didn't want it on land, where people were bound to make a shrine. So splash we go.

[BluePriest]

(this may sound like a dumb question)
did we really throw him in the ocian? i heard they did on kong chat

Kong chat was right. 4 words I never thought Id say.
ninjad.

[Genuinous]

Hmmm... And now starts the conspiracy. "Where's the body? Where's the proof?"