I suppose I ought to pop in here once in awhile. :) I started back to school the last week of March. I love my classes, and initially I did pretty well managing my time. However, my research writing class has proven to be quite time consuming, and I between classes and managing my family I haven't had much time for anything else.
However, something got my attention tonight. Tonight, I hear that we (America) have killed Osama Bin Laden.
I have mixed feelings.
People are partying in the street, letting off fireworks, celebrating at the White House. While I understand the sentiments, I am not sure how much I am with them.
It seems so much retaliatory, and not really serving any purpose, other than a symbolic one. Part of me feels strongly that he ought to have been treated as a war criminal and tried for his crimes against humanity. I don't know that summarily assassinating this man accomplishes much.
I hear that we have "custody of his body". I'm not sure how we have managed that, and I'm not sure why, other than to carry out DNA confirmation of his identity. But what good does his body do us? Do we plan to display his head on a stick? If anything, we are likely to greatly anger some foreign communities with this admission.
Some may say that we now are free of his brand of terrorism, but we all know that for every Bin Laden, there are 10 more just like him. I doubt that any of his plans, large or small, will come to a screeching halt with his death. If anything, his cohorts will be even more determined to carry out any forthcoming plan against America or its citizens, or any other part of the western world.
But neither is it my wish to devalue the service of the men and women in our military who are making such enormous sacrifices fighting a war they may or may not believe in. (Sounds familiar.) I always appreciate that the men and women of our armed forces don't get to choose our wars; they only must fight them when so ordered. I value their commitment, integrity, and strength in this war.
I can only hope that there will be something good come of this. Maybe it will be a greater sense of American unity, maybe it will grant us some measure of closure as a people. Maybe it will bring us closer to an end to this war.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteI share so many of your feelings. It is important that OBL be killed or captured for the sake of justice and the security of our nation. This is a primary responsibility of civil government, administering justice and the safety and security of its people. Will his death change much in the long run? I doubt it. Does the death of terrorists fuel their hate toward us? Of course. Does that mean we should back off trying to provide security for our people? No. Is there and eery resemblance between celebrations in the Palestinian Territories after 9-11 and celebrations in the US last night and today? Maybe, a little; but there is a difference between terrorism and the administration of justice.
ditto Glenn
ReplyDeleteI agree, Glenn, that we have to take steps to ensure the security of our nation. I don't necessarily believe this means summarily killing our enemies.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I understand that the intelligence and the armed forces that carried out this attack are experts, and if they didn't believe capturing him alive was realistic, or couldn't be done and still keep our Seal team safe, then they probably had to kill him. I don't mean to sound like I'm second guessing that (although CNN reported that there never was any plan to take Bin Laden alive).
As I've been thinking more about my feelings, I realized that what really bothers me is how his death both robs his victims of seeing him answer for his crimes, it also makes him a martyr among his cohorts. I don't like that.
But what's done is done. I do hope the Seal team was able to bring back hard drives and other electronics that we can use as intelligence about Al Qaeda.