I fear I’m going way, way out on a limb here. So let me be clear: I understand why so many people are so happy that Osama Bin Laden’s dead. I’m never happy about anyone’s death, but I get the point. I oppose the death penalty, even for international terrorism, but I don’t see how the U.S., once the CIA knew where he was, could have done much else. Capturing him alive would have been nearly impossible; even if the Navy SEALS could have done that, taking him back and trying him (and them imprisoning him — where? Guantanamo?) would have been a nightmare, and probably caused far far more deaths. This was a direct military operation (way better than the drone missiles we fire all over Pakistan, killing civilians); I doubt anyone inside that compound could seriously claim to be a noncombatant. And while we’ll never know the truth, it’s entirely likely that Bin Laden fought back.
That said: Does anyone else think it was a little unseemly for all of those folks to be out in the streets celebrating someone’s death?
Remember: We’re not celebrating the end of a war (I wish we were; I’d be in the streets, too). The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will continue for quite a while. There will be more terrorist attacks, perhaps in retaliation. What we’re really celebrating here is the death of a bad guy, at the hands of American armed forces. And even hard-core death-penalty fans don’t tend to go out and wave flags and shout in triumph when the state kills someone (no matter how awful the person was).
I’m not going to join the crazies who want to blame the U.S. for killing OBL; he wasn’t a head of state. He was a war criminal, an enemy combatant, and he was killed in a firefight. Even the human rights folks at the European Commission are good with this.
I have no doubt that the SEALs were instructed not to take him alive; I’m not even going to argue that point. Let’s just stipulate for a moment that this was entirely justifiable. (Even if Robert Fisk says OBL had long since become irrelevant.)
Still: Should we be running around with flags saying “go America, we killed a murderer?”
I don’t know. A little more quiet dignity might have made a better impression on the world.