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after 2-week hiatus: bin laden
May. 2nd, 2011 04:28 pmSo I had two-week hiatus from LJ because I took annual leave (maximising my days, what with these endless Bank Holiday four-day weekends happening in the UK right now). And I needed this leave because hosting my entire family over Easter was pretty much 24/7 and high-maintenance.
So I planned to post about a) family and/or b) Royal Wedding but instead find myself having to comment on the most recent surprise news which is c) Osama.
I am not one normally given to conspiracy theories or more-than-normal scepticism about lying politicians and their serfs, the media. However, this whole thing fills me with unease.
First, where is the body of this man? Why are we taking politicians' word for this?
Secondly and more gravely, why are people rejoicing at his death? It always makes me very uneasy when I see people on the news rejoicing at other people's deaths. Yes, of course, Osama bin Laden was major bad news and possibly evil but I think that
1) we are lowering ourselves to his level if we rejoice about a death, be it the death of a 'worthy' or what we deem to be an 'unworthy' human being, and
2) we are acting at the level of terrorists and at a base human basic level of revenge if we prefer killing a criminal to apprehending a criminal and putting the criminal on trial. That man has had the easy way out. That man has not been brought to justice and made to appear before proper courts of law. I would much, much prefer him to be on the dock in The Hague than dead (?) in the sea (?).
Who is rejoicing here? Is it the loved ones of people who died in the World Trade Center? I can't imagine they would rejoice as their loved ones remain dead. Perhaps they feel closure but rejoice? (But perhaps they are rejoicing. I perhaps do not know the ways of complex grief.) Is it the loved ones of soldiers who died in the pursuit of Bin Laden and who need Bin Laden's death to justify their loved ones' death? Again, I can imagine closure but rejoicing? When you've lost someone? Is it people who haven't lost anyone and who are upset by what they see on the news (as am I) but why are they rejoicing? Is there some pent-up thing going on that I am not aware of because it never got reported?
Thirdly, this is not going to stop terrorism. A journalist on a website (BBC? Independent?) opined that it was good that he was killed because that would stop terrorists from perpetrating criminal acts in order to ransom him, if he were to stand trial. I doubt anything much will stop terrorists (unless it is major social change etc etc fodder for another post). And this certainly won't stop terrorists if they want to perpetrate criminal acts in order to revenge a martyr.
I was also very uneasy about the killing of Gaddafi's son in Libya. I am not happy about the 'West' interfering. This did not work out in Iraq. This is going to make Gaddafi dig in his heels. This is all a big mess.
No matter how badass and evil someone is, I cannot be happy about us taking other human life into our hands.
So I planned to post about a) family and/or b) Royal Wedding but instead find myself having to comment on the most recent surprise news which is c) Osama.
I am not one normally given to conspiracy theories or more-than-normal scepticism about lying politicians and their serfs, the media. However, this whole thing fills me with unease.
First, where is the body of this man? Why are we taking politicians' word for this?
Secondly and more gravely, why are people rejoicing at his death? It always makes me very uneasy when I see people on the news rejoicing at other people's deaths. Yes, of course, Osama bin Laden was major bad news and possibly evil but I think that
1) we are lowering ourselves to his level if we rejoice about a death, be it the death of a 'worthy' or what we deem to be an 'unworthy' human being, and
2) we are acting at the level of terrorists and at a base human basic level of revenge if we prefer killing a criminal to apprehending a criminal and putting the criminal on trial. That man has had the easy way out. That man has not been brought to justice and made to appear before proper courts of law. I would much, much prefer him to be on the dock in The Hague than dead (?) in the sea (?).
Who is rejoicing here? Is it the loved ones of people who died in the World Trade Center? I can't imagine they would rejoice as their loved ones remain dead. Perhaps they feel closure but rejoice? (But perhaps they are rejoicing. I perhaps do not know the ways of complex grief.) Is it the loved ones of soldiers who died in the pursuit of Bin Laden and who need Bin Laden's death to justify their loved ones' death? Again, I can imagine closure but rejoicing? When you've lost someone? Is it people who haven't lost anyone and who are upset by what they see on the news (as am I) but why are they rejoicing? Is there some pent-up thing going on that I am not aware of because it never got reported?
Thirdly, this is not going to stop terrorism. A journalist on a website (BBC? Independent?) opined that it was good that he was killed because that would stop terrorists from perpetrating criminal acts in order to ransom him, if he were to stand trial. I doubt anything much will stop terrorists (unless it is major social change etc etc fodder for another post). And this certainly won't stop terrorists if they want to perpetrate criminal acts in order to revenge a martyr.
I was also very uneasy about the killing of Gaddafi's son in Libya. I am not happy about the 'West' interfering. This did not work out in Iraq. This is going to make Gaddafi dig in his heels. This is all a big mess.
No matter how badass and evil someone is, I cannot be happy about us taking other human life into our hands.