Wednesday, May 11, 2011

A week removed and now reviewed

I am a bit late on this bandwagon, but I feel now is the best time for me to comment on the death of Osama bin Laden. It's been about a week and half since he was evidently killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan and I think that we, the people, have as much information as we're going to have, for now. I imagine, maybe years from now, more information will be made available once we, as a nation, and those directly involved are a bit more removed from the event and it enters the annals of history.
Personally, I feel the world is a better place without him and I have no problem with him being "assassinated" as some like claim. At his direction, he's killed thousands of innocent people, both American and other nationalities. I also feel that, if it were a viable option to take him alive, the SEALs would have done so, but they did not. Some reports say that he was armed or reaching for a gun, in which case the lives of our servicemen were more important than he as a live captive. There's also the fact he or others in the compound may have been wearing explosive vests. Obviously, we know now that's not the case, but it's something that had to be taken into account. Military planners prefer calculated risks, not frivolously gambling the lives of their troops away and they probably felt any resistance should be dealt with using lethal force. Once again, I'm okay with that.
Many people fear that terrorists will seek revenge for what we have done and they probably will try. I feel, however, that they were trying before and they'll continue in the future. The nature of being a superpower is that you illicit strong emotions. Everybody either loves you and seeks to emulate you or they hate you and want to destroy you. This has been true from the earliest city states to now and will be true in the future, as well.

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