Osama Bin Laden

While watching TV last night, the news broke that Osama Bin Laden is dead. My initial reaction was "it's about time", and then immediately, I felt remorse, I felt conflicted, and very confused by the video footage being shown of young, white, college aged (this is what I saw on my local news) Americans flooding the streets, celebrating, cheering, waving the American Flag and rejoicing in murder. I'm not here to say that I feel he should have been left to roam freely, filling more people with more hate, and fueling more war. I just don't see how we can view ourselves differently than them. I know I felt sick, and nauseous when I saw footage of Al-Qaeda supporters cheering and rejoicing at the news of the fall of the World Trade Center towers. I don't understand such violent, real, tangible hate. It does not compute. So, watching the news today, I feel disheartened (even as I believe we are all the same; all one in this world) that we are no better than they.

The big question being asked is if the world is a better place with Bin Laden gone. Are we really so naive? How could the world be a better place through war? So, we killed the man who plotted and succeeded in killing nearly 3,000 Americans in one fell swoop. What transpired on September 11, 2001 was heinous and there are no sufficient words to describe the despair and helplessness we all felt, and none more so than the families of the victims. NOTHING can undo that day. No amount of killing, no amount of force, no amount of weaponry will bring back those we lost.

So, today, I find myself with conflicted emotions; one side feeling as though some sort of mid-evil justice has been served, and thoughts of "good riddance, you sick motherfucker", as the other side weeps for the world and it's primitive, hateful state.

If nothing else, I truly hope that what's been done can now bring some sense of closure, or justice, or possibly validation for the years and the military lives we've lost while we've been searching and fighting.