When Navy Seals ended the life of Osama Bin Laden a little less than two weeks ago, the world went nuts with reaction. When President Obama addressed the nation, Twitter reported that over 5,100 tweets were being sent a second! Take 5,100 and multiply that by 60 and that equals out to a whole bunch of tweets for one minute. Now multiply that number by the 9 minutes that Obama talked and that is a very large number (2,754,000 total tweets to be exact). Obviously, the world had a lot to say about the death of Bin Laden.
I want to say right off the bat that I support the killing of OBL. Mass murderers have no place on this earth. However, I will talk more about this really soon when I put to the test two of the most common arguments against the death of OBL.
Before I get into that though, I want to reflect on the mission that killed Osama. Before the raid, I knew very little about the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Basically, JSOC is a collection of our military’s most skilled and deadly divisions (hence, the Navy Seals being one of them). These guys are given dangerous missions of the utmost importance that hinge on absolute precision and accuracy. It is a no-brainer that JSOC was in control of killing Osama.
I honestly could not read/watch enough of the coverage about the mission that killed OBL. Absolutely incredible. These guys started training for this mission by literally rehearsing the raid on a compound that the military built that was an exact replica of the one that OBL lived in. After Obama gave them the go-ahead, they flew into foreign skies, rope jumped into the compound, killed Osama’s cronies on the first floor, secured the second floor, went up to the third floor and took care of OBL, secured his body, scoured the house completely to come up with enough material that could “fill a small college library”, blew up their own helicopter that crash landed, and then got everyone back into the helicopter plus a corpse…in 40 minutes. Yes everyone, we have some absolute bad asses who are protecting us while we get to live our lives. We are very lucky.
Not everyone appreciated this mission as much as I did. I have to admit that it is kind of weird to rejoice over someone’s death. However, there are exceptions. Over and over again I heard two different arguments people used in objection to OBL’s killing. Well, one is an argument against it and the other is a point that people kept bringing up.
First thing people say: OBL’s death is not going to bring back all the people he killed Are you serious? I don’t think anyone who has any of their brain cells still working would think their loved ones are going to come back or, more realistically, think it is ever going to fill the void of the loss they suffered. Everyone who lost a loved one knows this, do not insult them by saying that OBL’s death is not going to bring anyone back. This is not an argument, it has nothing to do whatsoever with why people have found some sort of satisfaction with why he is gone. For everyone who had the unbelievable horrible fate of losing someone in the 9/11 attacks, they did gain something with OBL’s death: No longer do they have to worry about the person in all of their worst nightmares stalking the earth anymore. No longer do they have to fathom the possibility that the person who killed someone they love in addition to thousands of others might not have to pay the same price that they did. No longer do they have to worry that someone who ruined their own lives could ruin anyone else’s life with similar attacks. Justice was served to a degree, and that is something to be content with.
Second thing people say: Americans are hypocrites for celebrating the death of OBL. No, this could not be further from the truth. When 9/11 occurred, Middle Eastern nations took to the streets with their children and held parades, BURNED American flags, and cheered on the fact that thousands of INNOCENT lives had been lost. They were celebrating solely for the loss of human life. When the Navy Seals took OBL out of his misery, Americans gathered on the streets for a few hours in a sign of a mission accomplished, in a sign of relief, and in a sign that justice had been served. Americans were gathering to mark the fact that the devil incarnate, someone who impacted millions of lives in the worst possible way, was gone. People who celebrated the 9/11 attacks celebrated an event that made the world worse; people who celebrated the death of Osama Bin Laden celebrated an event that made the world better. You tell me where the hypocrisy is. Don’t Blink.
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