Osama Bin Laden is at the Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea

The most surprising thing about this is that he was still alive. I figured he was long dead and just being used as the boogeyman to scare people into justifying some of the more extreme U.S. actions in recent times.

I hope you're right about curbing terrorism but I think there is a lot more needed to stop it than just this. This guy was the face of the crazies, but there are plenty more where he came from and the western world continually attacking and invading middle eastern countries is not helping things.

I consider myself to be a very tolerant person and I have Muslim friends, but I cannot help but be joyful at the death of this monster. I was so happy to walk into work this morning and look at the television at 5am and see that he was dead and buried at sea.

The only disappointment for me was that we showed so much reverence for his religious beliefs. The man never would have afforded his victims the same right (if he had the guts to do anything personally, not brainwash people into doing it for him) and I do not personally believe he deserved it.

Don't get me wrong, I understand why the U.S. did it this way, and we will look good to the Arab world for doing it...I just somewhere deep within me hope that the SEALS rubbed their bullets with pork before putting them into their magazines for their rifles.

Actually I think the way they have done things is only going to add fuel to the conspiracy loonies suspicions. All we're relying on so far is the word of the government that they killed him and dumped him at sea. There is no proof of anything (claiming they did a DNA test is not proof). Nutjobs like the ones who don't believe Obama is American will have a field day with this.

There's many opinions floating around about the reaction of the American people. Many feel that the public celebration is wrong. When your country is attacked and family and friends are killed or forced to jump from buildings, wouldn't you dance in the street once the mastermind was dead? It's a sense of closure. The fact that terrorism is not over is evident but the single event of this death serves as personal justice for a country and people that suffered 911.

That said, it does make me nervous. These lunatics could view this as taunting. The death of Bin Laden leaves it wide open for those with the need to prove themselves. Sadly, it makes the world a little more scary.

LOL I don't do religion or politics! Its too dangerous! But here I go anyway 😉

I have to say something about the dancing in the street stuff that Savannah mentioned. I can understand why people did it but I don't agree with it. I remember when people were outraged when idiots were filmed celebrating the WTC attacks. And rightly so (the outrage not the celebration). But you can't claim moral or cultural superiority over people like that and then turn around and do the same thing. It just brings us all down to the same level, and I would like to think that we (the western democratic world) are supposed to be better than "they did it too so it makes it ok". And I share Savannah's concern that this sort of public celebration could just anger more nutjobs.

Ed that is one of the most intelligent things I have heard anyone say about this whole thing. In London weve had our share of terrorism and I think its safe to say that we'll never solve the problem by trying to kill all the terrorists.

Thats not to say Bin Laden didnt deserve what he got! But its sad that its necessary to go and do that sort of thing.

Now that's intelligence, integrity and pride! Maybe someone like me lost someone in 9-11. After reading these posts, I'm willing to bet you didn't suffer that kind of loss and damage. I am disappointed in the judgement passed within this thread.

Usne, I loved your post. I can feel the passion and I respect it even though I disagree with a lot of it!

You're right about countries calling for U.S. help all the time. The question is whether the help is going to the right places and for the right reasons. Think about Zimbabwe or Congo or Darfur or any other places where the western world should be doing more but has done little or nothing. But instead we invented a bogus reason to attack Iraq, which was not about helping anyone (except maybe GWB and his buddies). Afghanistan was justifiable in my opinion, but we totally lost the plot by going into Iraq.

CL-Savannah wrote:

Maybe someone like me lost someone in 9-11. After reading these posts, I'm willing to bet you didn't suffer that kind of loss and damage. I am disappointed in the judgement passed within this thread.

No disrespect was intended at all. When the Bali bombings happened in 2002 (?) and a bunch of Australians were killed, I know someone who lost her husband. It was not someone I knew well but I had met him a few times and it was terrible. I also have a friend from school whose father was killed in a gun massacre. I know it does not compare to losing a family member or close friend though. The problem with discussions like these is it can be hard to separate the emotion and look at it from all angles, especially if you have been personally affected. Its not for me to pass judgement on people's actions, but I am well entitled to say that I don't agree with celebrating death like that, no matter who it is. I know we are (or should be!) better than that.

A comedian I saw on tv was talking about it all last night and he skewered the whole thing. A trillion dollars wasted, 3 countries devastated, 100,000 dead Iraqis, and thousands of dead U.S. soldiers. But we got our man in the end. It made me think was it worth it? I don't think so, not at that price. If the terrorists' aim was death and destruction and war with America and the west, then we fell into the trap and gave it to them on a platter. They have indirectly succeeded in severely damaging the U.S. economy, and created a streak of fear, paranoia and hatred in people. Not to mention that all the destruction we have caused in Iraq that far exceeds the damage done in the WTC attacks is going to create more resentment and more terrorists in the long run (I know someone will slam me for saying that, but its true if you look at it objectively).

Now don't jump on me and call me an appeaser or terrorist sympathiser or accuse me of wanting to do nothing or saying its all America's fault! That is not the case. In future we need to be smarter about the way we deal with these things, and stop meddling in other countries' affairs where it is not warranted, because no-one can say that this whole mess has been a success. And yes, Mr Idealist here readily admits that its easy to say, not so easy to do!

/excuse my while I slip into my flame repellant, bullet-proof suit! 😨

Both sides on this issue make valid points. My opinions:

The U.S. is definitely relied upon by the rest of the world, and is almost always the first to be criticized when something is done against "popular consensus". My questions are "Why do we have to be the world police when everyone else is criticizing us?" and "Why do we help these countries with financial and tangible aid when they clearly would want us not to be successful if they could help it?"

Iraq is a moot point. It was a mistake to go there, but it wasn't strictly the fault of the United States or George Bush like so many people make it out to be. A lot of people said Saddam had WMDs, from the UN to Bill Clinton and in fact, he DID have them because we gave them to him (and used some against his own people) and we still don't know what happened to them. Whatever he did do with them he didn't want to say he no longer had them because he was afraid of Iran finding out and feared an invasion from a religious government like them (Saddam was secular). Bottom line: we shouldn't have gone there but hindsight is 20/20 and there is a lot more going on there then we knew.

Btw, Sarin was found in Iraq: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/iraq-sarin-stockpiles-found/s...

Afghanistan: Get out. Now. Al Qaeda is going to be F'd for a while, and we shouldn't be fighting the Taliban. Let them go back to civil war in Afghanistan. The leadership on our side is corrupt and we don't need anything to do with them. It is not worth another American life to deal with propping up a corrupt government.

War on Terror: We can't win this one with force. The ideology behind the extremist's attitudes can't be changed with violence. When democracy reaches the region you will start seeing extremism die, and I think it is happening right now. I was not a big George Bush supporter but one of his goals with Iraq and Afghanistan was to get a democratic government to take foothold in that area with the hope it would spread. Maybe it is happening because of what happened in those two countries. We don't know yet, and we won't know probably for another 50 years but it is interesting to say the least.

Enough rambling, I need to go gamble.

I am a master of 20/20 hindsight! 8)

barbadosslim93 wrote:

Btw, Sarin was found in Iraq: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/iraq-sarin-stockpiles-found/story-e6frfkui-1111112124958

Fair point, although from that article it says:

A Pentagon official who confirmed the findings said that all the weapons were pre-1991 vintage munitions "in such a degraded state they couldn't be used for what they are designed for."

So it was not proof of ongoing manufacture and stockpiling of new weapons which was supposedly the reason they went there. I have my own views on why they really went to Iraq but theres no need to start a forum war!

I am still glad that Bin Laden is gone.

Personally, I didn't want to get into this thread so far for two reasons - because I come from one of the countries that know what it's like to be struck by the power of the States' will to meddle into other countries' affairs, but also because I'm an empathic person, and therefore I feel genuinely sad about the unfortunate 9/11 events, but also have confused feelings about everything that's been going on in the world for the past 10 - 15 years.

As someone who suffered but luckily survived bombing and can still feel some consequences of its effects, I can only say that the death of thousands of people killed in 9/11, the thousands of casualties in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc, make me purely sad, but the killing of Osama or anyone else for that matter, doesn't make me happy either. It's a mad, mad world, and if anything was done right, Osama would suffer a severe, most difficult lifetime prison sentence for his deeds, people would not die for someone's political ideology or aspirations to get to their country's wealth, and other innocents would not be killed for pure revenge.

Frankly, I fear the killing of Osama, who brought so much suffering to all of you guys in the States, may trigger some more killing, and the vicious circle may, sadly, continue spinning... I can only pray for all the innocent people in this world to be saved and for all those who died to be at peace.

Hope no one gets me wrong guys, I'm taking no sides here, or referring to any of you in particular, just expressing my frustration that, even dead, Osama still manages to get to us and cause more confrontations...

Great point CatFace. I can definitely see your point, and respect what you have to say. This world is definitely a crazy place and wrong and right can be defined by the point of view and experiences you have had. I have my own opinions on things, but always try to understand where other people are coming from and can empathize with them, even if I don't necessarily agree with them.

If we can teach people how to do that, I think Osama will not have won anything.

CatFace you have nailed it. There are no winners in all of this.

I also admire how this discussion hasn't degenerated into a flame war like you see so often with topics like this. There is hope for us all yet!