Mission Accomplished?

I woke up this morning to NPR, and the big headline is that Osama Bin Laden has been killed. They were reporting live from the WTC Memorial in New York, and I could hear people in the crowd singing “God Bless America.”

The September 11th attacks were a tragedy that took nearly 3,000 civilian lives. For that, Osama should have stood trial before the UN. I am disappointed that he died in in such a manner, as he can now be held up as a martyr for his cause. However, how can we gloat as Americans, when we have killed over 113,500 civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001? [1] I am reminded of footage of people in Palestine cheering after 9/11, and how sickened we were as Americans to see others gloating in our tragedy. Yet some of us are singing “God Bless America” after we have taken our costly revenge? It’s bizarre.

I don’t think Bin Laden’s death is anything to celebrate. Rather, I think it should be a time for somber reflection on the nature of revenge, and what it has cost the world.

[1] Numbers compiled from the most conservative numbers on Wikipedia, found here and here.

109 Notes/ Hide

  1. passepresenterfutures reblogged this from heymikewaskom
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  5. exclamate reblogged this from edman and added:
    loss of thousands of precious lives, but...will not rejoice
  6. bcleezy reblogged this from radicalbutterflies and added:
    Exactly. Bin Laden was a terrible, terrible person and caused so much pain and death and fear, but how we claim to be so...
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  11. bigcitycowgirl reblogged this from heymikewaskom and added:
    The first thing I thought when I heard the news last night was, “I wonder how long we have until they retaliate.” I know...
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