Rejoice!
It's not yet 48 hours since bin Laden's death was announced, and already the second-guessers and nay-sayers and cavilers and snivelers are coming out of the woodwork, as I knew they would.I've seen a startling number of blog comments suggesting that it's "inappropriate" to celebrate bin Laden's death. One even claimed that the rejoicing in the US is no better than the celebration of the September 11 attack which erupted in some parts of the Muslim world back on that day.
What rubbish. Those who celebrated September 11 were cheering for the mass murder of innocent people. Those who celebrate now (including these Americans, please note) are cheering the death of one of the most bloody-handed monsters on the planet. This is no more "inappropriate" than celebrating the eradication of the AIDS virus would be.
Let me be blunt: Too many people, whether nominally religious or not, are still afflicted with Christianity's rotting-out and corruption of the natural moral sense. A fake morality of loving enemies, turning the other cheek, and renouncing violence in response to even the grossest evil -- this can't work in the real world and it's against human nature, but even many people who know better on a conscious level still carry its poisons down in the lower mental murk that gets stirred up on occasions like these.
Well, I don't, and nor does any psychologically-healthy person. I know the capacity for hatred exists in us for a reason, and there are people towards whom hatred is the appropriate feeling, and bin Laden was one of those people. I rejoice in his death without reservation, whether or not there is any deterrent effect on future terrorists. In a case like his, revenge for its own sake is more than just and more than adequate as a reason to kill.
The people celebrating in Washington, New York, and elsewhere, know that on a gut level, even if the scolds don't.
Worth reading: Christopher Hitchens on what kind of man bin Laden was.
posted by Infidel753 at 9:38 AM
12 Comments:
Now there is criticism emanating from the Muslim world that bin Laden's body was not disposed of properly according to Islamic tradition.
To those critics I would like to offer them to choke down a teaspoon of the people rendered to DUST in the WTC, Pentagon and in a field in Stonycreek Township, Penn.
I changed trains at the Pentagon Metro station for six years after 9/11 and every day on the way to work I remembered that I might not make it back home that day. I didn't let it change my behavior but it was always in the back of my mind, and I was always a bit nervous when they increased security there.
Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh .... this one had me going for awhile, not knowing where it was going, because I been reading/ hearing some of the same shit ... of all place's ... get this ... on local Dallas talk radio, um, um, um ... imagine that! I was just driving down LBJ Frwy a tad earlier and heard this one gal weeping like Mother Theresa over this ... I almost called in from my cell to respond, but figured to let her whine/ weep (pointless), I'd just be wasting minute's on my cell ... heh, heh, heh, heh, heh .... this was truely a funny posting though, Guy (even though I know you werent in a humorous mood, I canr help myself) :)
Thanx Infodel! ....
Hitchens cuts through the crap on many issues, this and the Iraq war.
Infidel, you make some very good points and I resent those who are trying to make us feel bad for celebrating (I've only seen it on the left, so far). An evil man is dead. Nothing to feel bad about there.
RtS: I still don't see why anyone would think the body of a mass murderer deserved to be treated with any respect, even if he was of the same religion as the people doing the complaining.
LA: If the "increased security" was anything like what they do at airports these days, it was just theatrics and didn't make anyone safer anyway.
RC: Anyone who would weep over bin Laden must be pretty messed up.
DM: Indeed he does.
HR: Thanks. I've seen some of the same from Andrew Sullivan. The common thread seems to be a religious mentality. I doubt there was any of this hand-wringing in Russia when they finally got Basayev (the guy who planned the Beslan attack).
I’ve just lately began a weblog, the knowledge you present on this website has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all your time & work.
OK. just to make my point, about the celebrating... I am not condemning or criticizing anyone.... I just feel that the more pragmatic approach is to clearly demonstrate, to any future 'bin Laden' is that it is 'business' and we will take care of it, clean, clear and simple.
George Bush, on the other hand....
“The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.”
- G.W. Bush, 9/13/01
“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.”
- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02
Getting Osama was business. Clear, simple. Getting caught up in a sideshow with the body, or celebrating isn’t business. I feel it would have just produced more ill effects than it was worth. I agree with Obama... it is done; and we are moving on. Bush, I feel, encouraged more terrorism by his cowboy rhetoric and false bravado.
ok. just saying.
Infidel753,
I had to endure an email from a family member [by marriage] who wrote this:
"Funny, regardless of what bad and evil things he is credited with, like 9/11, I am conflicted in hearing about anyone hunted down and killed. Call me a pacifist (regardless of who I say should be lined up by height and shot, not wasting any ammo in the process). I just don't see things as black and white nor do I think that we should rejoice in a person leaving this world. Surely there is good in everyone regardless of how misled. Was he born into the world with inherent evil? So perhaps I feel sorry for the path that this person took in their life and how they inappropriately took the lives of others. How is it that anyone thinks that they have the right.?
Perhaps I put the faces of those who celebrated the death of people in the twin towers, on that day, onto the faces of those who were outside the white house celebrating on this day. Death is death. How it can be celebrated is something I am very sad for. Somber thanks by those who need closure, I can understand."
I replied with this:
"Well, I did read that Hitler loved his mother."
Was that too sarcastic?
I agree with you Infidel, sometimes we DO have to understand that there is real evil in the world.
The person who wrote me that email is naive and not acquainted with the real world.
A: Thanks, I hope.
Okjimm: I was talking about celebrations by ordinary citizens, not the government. The blog comments I referred to were condemning the natural reactions of ordinary people.
SK: I don't think it was too sarcastic, but I doubt your interlocutor got the point. Then again, that person may well be too naïve to get the point regardless of how it's expressed.
Infidel...I understand. This is a great blog... with a great exchange of information. I just disagreed on that point, and I really appreciate being allowed voice in the forum.
That's what it is about... right?
"One even claimed that the rejoicing in the US is no better than the celebration of the September 11 attack which erupted in some parts of the Muslim world back on that day."
Yes. the former celebrates good, and the latter celebrates evil.
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