We Killed Bin Laden. It Had To Be Done, But It Is Nothing To Be Proud Of

by: Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said

Mon May 02, 2011 at 05:28:08 AM MST

One of the things that tipped off US intelligence was the size of the compound and the fact that for a building that size and in that location there was no telephone or internet going into it. A very strange state of affairs for an estimated  $1 million dollar home.

The attack took place without the knowledge of anyone inside Pakistan until it was over. Obviously the Obama Administration did not think that we could share any of the intelligence on this with the Pakistani government because of the divided loyalties inside it.

Bin Laden was killed in a firefight along with two other men and one woman. Reports are saying that she was used as a human shield. The compound was then destroyed by demolition charges and Bin Laden's body was taken out with the strike team.

The response here in the United States is about what you would expect, and is pretty sad to me. There is celebrations and people cheering and I can't for the life of me stomach that kind of reaction.

Back in early 2002 when we as a nation were still reeling from the 9/11 attacks my Dad sent me some kind of jingoistic piece of crap. It was a picture of all the ordnance that a B-52 bomber can carry (other than nuclear weapons). It had the caption "A little gift for you Osama" on it.

It pissed me off then and it pisses me off now. I told Dad that I understood the need to track down and capture or kill Bin Laden. After all he led the terror organization that perpetrated 9/11. However it should not be something we are proud of doing once it is done. It is not something we should crow about.

It would be something that we did because we had to do it. Like putting down a rabid dog is should never be a happy thing when we kill someone, even someone who did great damage to our nation. There is no pride to be gained by making sure that someone who harmed us, who killed thousands of innocent people both on the planes and in the buildings on 9/11. There is only the need to make sure that they never are able to do it again.  

There is going to be strutting and puffing out of chests on all sides, but the reality is that we have only killed one man. Sure he was the titular leader of Al Qaeda but he was not the only leader nor is Al Qaeda a hierarchical structure world wide.

It will mean nothing for our war efforts in Libya, or the winding down of our occupation of Iraq. There is a possibility that it will make some difference in the Afghan war, after all our current justification for being there is that we can't let Al Qaeda back in and now that the head of that terror organization in that part of the world is dead, there may be some rethinking.

In the end this will probably mean very little. It is a good thing that Bin Laden is gone. It would have been far better if we had captured him and been able to hold a real trial in federal court and punish him under our laws. It was probably never going to happen that way as I tend to doubt that he would allow himself to be captured at this point, after all a dead martyr is always better than a live convict for the purposes of propaganda.

So now we go on. We have taken some form of justice (crude, bloody, but perhaps just) from one of the people who planned to kill so many on 9/11 and that is a good thing. But it does not solve any of the problems we face today. It gives some measure of closure to those who had loved ones die 10 years ago in the Pentagon or the planes or the Twin Towers, but that is about all it does.

If you feel like celebrating, try to temper it, okay? Remember all the soldiers and civilians that have died in the wars that this mad man baited us into. There are a lot of dead that had nothing to do with 9/11 and killing Osama Bin Laden won't bring a single one back. All it might do, just might, is prevent a few more from dying in the future. A good thing, surely, but nothing to be overly proud about.

The floor is yours.