Welcome to Gaia! ::

Your position is divorced of context. Cheering some random stranger on the street getting shot is a dangerously unbalanced mindset. That's not what's at play here. Nearly every instance I've seen of people cheering has not been the death angle, it was the "we found and put a stop to him" angle. It was about justice and about the relief of knowing this man would no longer be in any position to perpetrate his acts against the innocents of the world anymore. These people would be just as happy if Bin Laden had been taken alive, and frankly many people I saw celebrating expressed as much. Like it or not, Bin Laden was not going to voluntarily submit himself to a trial. He's had ample opportunity up till now. The raid conducted was a very risky, very difficult one in a sovereign nation without the knowledge or pre-approval of that country's government. It's not like we had time to lock down the place and call in the hostage negotiators. This man was the armed head of an organization which has conducted attacks against the United States, Britain, Spain, Kenya, Tanzania, Russia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and others. This man needed to be incapacitated for the protection of the world, and efforts were made to take him in alive. He resisted. Deadly force was used both for the protection of the servicemen involved in the operation and to ensure the main objective, the incapacitation of this dangerous man, could be achieved in spite of his armed resistance.

His incapacitation at the hands of US service personnel thus serves as the only justice the many victims of this man will get. Bin Laden had a choice to surrender and face the legal system, or to resist. Bin Laden chose his death sentence. It was a violent outcome, but it was nonetheless justice. To equate this with simple revenge ignores Bin Laden's actions and choices in this operation, and it ignores the purpose for which we attempted to apprehend him. It is furthermore wrong-headed to suggest that there is something morally deficient in celebrating justice. This would be to suggest that cheering any guilty verdict for a murderer is just the ugly celebration of revenge. Justice is one of the highest virtues of our republic. In our pledge of allegiance it ranks alongside liberty in what our republic means to us. When justice is served a people are entitled to rejoice. We rejoiced when Saddam Hussein was caught too. The difference between Bin Laden and Saddam is that Saddam chose to face a trial. Saddam chose to face a justice system. Bin Laden was far too much of a coward to answer for his crimes in an open court. Justice for Bin Laden's crimes was of our choosing, the method was of his.

With respect to letting god(s) do his job, what sort of passivity do you suggest? After 9-11 should we have never picked up a brick? Should we have sat doing nothing waiting for God to pick them up? If you have appendicitis should you sit and hope God removes you appendix before it bursts? God(s) is not in the business of doing our day to day tasks for us. That a universe is ordered such that there's stars in the sky, life on our planet, and all the forces of nature that allow it to stay that way, that is the domain of God. We have been given this world. What we want to make of it is up to us. If we want buildings, we are the ones who have to build them. If we want medicines, we are the ones who will have to make them. And if we want justice on Earth, we are the ones who will have to bring it about. And what accomplishments we make on this earth we have a right to be proud of. Whether it be the monuments and architecture of our great cities, or the miracles of longevity and quality of life our science creates, our pride, our joy at having toiled to bring them about is well earned. In the operation that put an end to Bin Laden we brought a guilty man to justice. In advancing the cause of earthly justice, we have earned a right to be proud.