Osama Bin Laden is Dead!

[Kidd Ikarus]

Its good to have strong beliefs in something, but god damn . . .

[nt07077]

He got off easy, just a couple gun shots, eh

[Jean]

another thing - in addition to what J&Y said - it's that there is not any real cause for celebration. It is not like you're living in a fantasy world where a demon incarnate is responsible for the evil that happens. Laden may have been the real charizmatic leader, the mastermind, or a figurehead - the difference is merely quantitative, because it's not him, it's the conditions that brought him and his supporters to life. If anything, they are going to make their dead leader their sacred banner; there's nothing to consolidate a movement as good as a martyr leader.

the timing sucks, too. Couldn't get him for ages, and then did exactly on the next day after the world started asking questions about Qaddafi's grandsons killing in a bombing of a civil object?

[Merlin1958]

I was on the NYC side of the Mid-town Tunnel when it happened. I was on my way to help service the phone system for the Port Authority. 20-30 mins either way and I'm there. I dealt with a LOT of folks from the Port Authority and when I worked on Wall Street The Sky bar at the top of the WTC was a great place to meet up and end a day.

Suffice to say that I spent a LOT of time in Down-town NY over the years, suffered through the first bombing and eventually "got outta dodge". I'm not particularly proud of that, but I for one am glad the bastard is dead. An awful lot of innocent folk. I knew, did business with, or counted as my friends were killed that day. I'm sorry if it may seem "non-PC", but for me. His death brings a certain amount of closure. No disrespect to others implied or intended, but if you weren't there, you have no right. absolutely no right, to judge me or the other millions of folks who LIVED it. Again, no disrespect intended, but be smart in your comments. Folks died, senselessly. I still mourn them, and you would too.

Thank God they got the bastard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tito_Villa]

I'm pretty glad he's dead too, seems by all accounts that they tried to take him captive but that wasn't possible. But he is out of the way now, food for fish and there is no grave to speak of that can be turned into a shrine for a so called martyr.

[agrabin]

Man was made to mourn

Many and sharp the num'rous ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves
Regret, remorse, and shame!
And man, whose heav'n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn, -
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!

Robert Burns

[Sir_Boomme]

well..... John/Yoko.... that is definitely one viewpoint... kind of a rose color glass outlook... but if it makes you happy....

you are wrong though when you made the statement...

"when we say "I wish ____ were dead", what we really mean is "I wish ____ would stop harming other people", "

maybe that is what you mean when you say that... but when I say that.... I mean I wish I could have pulled the trigger on the bastard myself.

then I'd like to bring him back to life... and blow his brains out again.... and repeat that 3,022 times for every single person killed on 9/11.

On 9/11 I woke up to a phone call from my father who told me to turn on the TV .... the news was on about the 1st tower being hit... as I sat stunned.... I watch live as the second tower was hit....
with tears in my eyes I continued watching as first one tower, then the other tower fell.... I had to call into work to tell them I was not going to make it in. As the day continued, as the pentagon was hit and flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.... my shock turned to anger, my sadness turned to fury. In the months that followed, as the stock market crashed and the way of life and freedoms diminished for hundreds of millions of Americans- all due to this one insane bastard.... my hate for him and his cohorts continued to grow.

If you choose to forgive, forget and preach reform.... well.... it's your path....
for me.... I choose to celebrate, pop the bubbly, dance around the room.... and whoop it up. My only regret is I didn't get to pop the MF'er myself.

Though I'm not privy to your life.... it's just my guess that perhaps your life has not been touch by real tragedy due to criminal behavior. Your viewpoint of:
" I'm in the camp that if ANY kind of killing is acceptable, then ALL kinds of killing are acceptable, and that's UN-acceptable"
.... might change dramatically if someone put a gun to your child's head and blew their brains out.
I'm guessing that might be a little harder to forgive, reform and forget.

I guess we will just disagree: you have empathy for the bad guy... I have empathy for the victims.

[Odetta]

another thing - in addition to what J&Y said - it's that there is not any real cause for celebration. It is not like you're living in a fantasy world where a demon incarnate is responsible for the evil that happens. Laden may have been the real charizmatic leader, the mastermind, or a figurehead - the difference is merely quantitative, because it's not him, it's the conditions that brought him and his supporters to life. If anything, they are going to make their dead leader their sacred banner; there's nothing to consolidate a movement as good as a martyr leader.

the timing sucks, too. Couldn't get him for ages, and then did exactly on the next day after the world started asking questions about Qaddafi's grandsons killing in a bombing of a civil object?

this

[Brice]

I ain't judging anyone, but I can't celebrate the death of anyone anymore no matter what they did/do.

[Kidd Ikarus]

I wish I could have a beer with Merlin and Sir_Broome right now. I hope the bastard burns in hell and his 72 virgins are fat, pimply faced nerds playing Magic the Gathering. Good riddance to filth.

[Ricky]

So how about that Celebrity Apprentice?

[beam*seeker]

I ain't judging anyone, but I can't celebrate the death of anyone anymore no matter what they did/do.

This. I am relieved that he is not around to cause havoc but we just basically martyred him. There will be plenty more to arise and take his place. It doesn't end the evil. Yes, I am glad that the victims of 9/11 and their families will get closure.

I don't think killing is wrong. I think he deserved to die. But for us to feel gladness over his death just doesn't feel right to me. It is a sad world we live in that we have to execute our enemies because they are too dangerous to suffer to live. But we don't have to be glad about the fact.

[Brice]

1. If you knew me and my love for all things lovecraftian you'd know how much I LOVE your sig.

2. I just can't celebrate ANY death at this point. There is no joy in it for me.

I know that's directly counter to #1 though and my absolute evilness.

[ICry4Oy]

I was on the phone with a coworker who was across the street from the WTC when the first plane hit. I will never forget that sound and her panic at what just happened. I once worked in the Murrah Building in OKC but fortunately transferred to Dallas before it fell. I did lose two friends in that explosion and another friend had her children in the daycare center that was obliterated. If I could have, I would have given Timothy McVeigh the first injection in his left nut myself. If I could have, I would have stuck the gun up Osama's ass and pulled the trigger myself.

So. YAY and stuff!

[beam*seeker]

1. If you knew me and my love for all things lovecraftian you'd know how much I LOVE your sig.

2. I just can't celebrate ANY death at this point. There is no joy in it for me.

I know that's directly counter to #1 though and my absolute evilness.

If you only knew I LOL everytime I read "Cyclopean Calamari".

And yeah, maybe there is no joy in it for us because of our evilness? Or maybe because we would have wanted to pull the trigger ourself? Or because it is just a drop in the well. You can't eradicate evil. I do get the concept of fraggin his ass because he is a symbol dammit, but to celebrate killing him seems wrong to me.

And ICry40, I love your suprize buttsecks avi.

[Sir_Boomme]

I was on the phone with a coworker who was across the street from the WTC when the first plane hit. I will never forget that sound and her panic at what just happened. I once worked in the Murrah Building in OKC but fortunately transferred to Dallas before it fell. I did lose two friends in that explosion and another friend had her children in the daycare center that was obliterated. If I could have, I would have given Timothy McVeigh the first injection in his left nut myself. If I could have, I would have stuck the gun up Osama's ass and pulled the trigger myself.

So. YAY and stuff!

I was passing through oklahoma city shortly after the bombing of the Murray Building and took this photo of memorials hung on a fence for the victims:


I'm sure Tyler's mom or dad (if they survived) had no problem with killing their son's
killer.

Icry.... You would have to use the left nut... because given the chance, I would have cut McVeigh's right one off and made him eat it.

[cozener]

I heard Trump is calling for the OFFICIAL Osama Death Certificate to be produced...

ok, i lol'd...


I'm not in a particularly celebratory mood because the fact is that Osama hasn't been influential except as an inspiration to those that hate the West for some time now and I'm afraid he might be even more inspirational now. In short, this shit with him and his kind ain't over (but I believe we are getting closer)

On top of that, even though we "got him" he's still the most successful terrorist (by our present definition of "terrorist") in history. He did a lot of what he set out to do. We've been pouring blood and money into Middle Eastern wars for a decade now, western economies aren't as stable as they once were and many of us are not as well off as we were before. Bin Laden and his crew did have a role in that. Thousands of lives lost, trillions of dollars spent. He, and those that followed him, have cost us dearly over the past 10 years and the scariest part...they set all this insanity in motion with very limited resources and very limited man power.

[John_and_Yoko]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels as I do.

@Sir_Boomme: I'm glad that we can agree to disagree civilly, and as I said before I won't get into an argument with you. So all I will do here is once again address your concerns about my position.

In my opinion, better rose-colored than jade-colored--otherwise why get up in the morning?

I would still like to believe that what I said IS what you mean, just that you don't realize it consciously, because if not then I REALLY feel sorry for you, that you're that consumed by your hatred. Is that really going to go away now that one man is dead? I may be looking through rose-colored glasses but I VERY much doubt that unless you work to fight it.

I was frightened too when I found out, but I let my fear remain FEAR (even then more of a healthy caution than a paranoia)--I didn't let it turn into anger and hatred, and thank God I didn't. Otherwise I would be in a VERY bad place now, a place where Osama's death could not possibly get me out of it. That's a fact--when George W. Bush became President TWICE I thought the world was coming to an end and was EXTREMELY angry and hateful. But even then I never wished that he would DIE. And now I'm trying to forgive and forget--hate what he DID, not who he WAS. (Especially now that he's not in power anymore.)

That is my path, yes, and it's the only path I want. I'm only sorry for when the next person comes along that does something like that because you'll only feel the same way again--hence bin Laden's death will have done nothing towards any lasting happiness for you.

Not as such, exactly--but people that members of my family have known HAVE had their lives touched by real tragedy (and DEATH) due to criminal behavior. But I would hope to High Heaven that if I were more directly impacted by it, that would NEVER lead me to become angry and hateful of whoever did it. No, it wouldn't--certainly not if I kept a level head about it. Because what good would that do? Would the death of my child's murderer bring my child back? Absolutely not. So what's the point? Hard to forget, yes, but I would do my best to forgive. That doesn't mean being OKAY with it, just acknowledging that it happened and getting on with my life, and not letting the murderer CONTROL me by becoming hateful. Because then that won't end if the murderer dies. If you have experienced such direct tragedy, I offer you my condolences, if that means anything to you. But I'm more sorry that you feel this kind of hatred over it because the former goes away, but the latter won't if you don't let it.

Lastly, please don't put it that way. I have empathy for EVERYONE--victims and perpetrators alike. But I HAVE to have empathy for the perpetrators and say so, because how many other people will do it if I don't?

[Girlystevedave]

The thing that gets me about all of this is the people standing outside the White House cheering and singing patriotic songs.
Cause yeah, we're gonna live in a peaceful world now. [rolls eyes]

[Merlin1958]

First off, the fact that they ended up having to kill Bin Laden more than likely was more Bin Laden's choice than the soldiers. I am absolutely certain that they had orders to get him alive if they possibly could. Imagine the press if they had been able to bring him to trial!!! No, I bet it was closer to "Suicide by Cop" that actually transpired.

Second, I for one, am under no illusions that killing Bin Laden will end the terror attempt and/or acts. However, as someone who was there so to speak, actually knew and did business with folks who didn't get out and as someone who frequented the Towers on numerous occasions, the fact that we got him brings a measure of closure as he was indeed responsible for setting those creeps in motion to carry out these despicvable acts. Also, it does my heart good that our government was finally able to follow through on their solemn pledge to the people to apprehend and bring to justice those responbile for these hienous acts. There is a measure of pride that "we got our man" so to speak.

I believe to a great extent that is what was going through the minds of the majority of folks that gathered in NYC and DC the other night.

For the record, I couldn't possibly agree with Sir Boome's thoughts on this issue more!!!!

U.S.A!!!!!!!!!!

[Ricky]

First off, the fact that they ended up having to kill Bin Laden more than likely was more Bin Laden's choice than the soldiers. I am absolutely certain that they had orders to get him alive if they possibly could. Imagine the press if they had been able to bring him to trial!!! No, I bet it was closer to "Suicide by Cop" that actually transpired.

I could've sworn that they went in with the intention of killing Bin Laden, but don't have anything to back that up. If you find an article or something, I'd be interested to know their exact intentions when the helicopters landed.

[Kidd Ikarus]

It saddens me that anyone could have empathy for a man who was such a cowardly piece of shit that in his final moments, he used a WOMAN as a human shield. He deserved a lot worse than a shot to the head.

[OchrisO]

I just can't bring myself to care if he is dead. Apathy reigns supreme.

[pixiedark76]

Killing was to good for him. He should have been captured and put in prison. where he could be tortured.

[John_and_Yoko]

It saddens me that even in death bin Laden still has such a tight grip on so many people. They're clearly not happy he's dead if they're saying things like he deserved worse than he got.

No one here is any different, fundamentally, myself included--and I don't hate anyone here. What's different is experiences and choices. Only fear makes anyone think otherwise--fear that we might become like that ourselves. Ironically, it's the hatred that makes us that way.