# On Bin Laden's Death **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 3, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544 "2011-05-03T03:58:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/41 "2011-05-03T19:12:37Z")
Bin Laden who? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/42 "2011-05-03T19:38:14Z")
Woke up, turned on the radio to at 6:38 to get entertainment news and instead heard "Stay tuned to 1010 WINS for continuing coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/43 "2011-05-03T20:38:55Z")
I checked Twitter on my iPhone while I was eating breakfast. CNN was the first tweet I saw regarding the death. I had a big grin on my face while I finished getting ready. Waited until I got to work to read the details on CNN and here. ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/44 "2011-05-03T22:42:16Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > How did you hear that America’s evilest enemy, Osama Bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs and what were your reactions to it? > > Personally I heard it on the side while my grandmother was watching TV and immeidately I began checking all the online news sources. Then as it became apparent, I was ecstatic and hugging myself in glee. I began singing “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and I think today it even gave me some adrenaline in PE. I can’t reconcile this with your previous statement about a Christian author’s death: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13745513&postcount=36](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13745513&postcount=36) ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/45 "2011-05-04T00:58:21Z")
Woke up Mon. morning to NPR on my clock radio. First thought…Yay! Second thought…how are the Republicans gonna spin this as an Obama failure. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/46 "2011-05-04T01:19:28Z")
A friend of mine and I were on Skype, simul-watching season 1 of _Dexter_. At the end of the 10th episode, he read aloud some joke he saw on Reddit about Osama bin Laden being dead. I gave it the sort of half-cursory laugh; then I thought, hmm, that’s a weird joke to be making. I wonder. . . . . .so I pulled up a news site, and, sure enough, it said he was dead. I then started sort of checking the SDMB, semi-obsessively, and refreshing the MPSIMS thread. This is, incidentally, exactly what I did on 9/11; the symmetry of that didn’t escape me. Of course, I do that for most major news events, so it’s hardly surprising. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/47 "2011-05-04T01:21:44Z")
I felt surprise. And then, kind of sad. Because, well, what did killing him after all this time prove? It didn’t teach him a lesson or, I think it didn’t teach any other terrorist a lesson. These people want to die themselves anyway. All I could think of was all of these lives that have been stopped, not just the ones he and his ilk stopped, but that we, in our effort to kill him stopped. All that tax money spent on death and war. It just seems to be such a waste. Do I have an alternative idea? No. But it still makes me sad. To the innocents who died everywhere because a few people have a personal death wish, I do wish there was a way to take it all back and restore you to your lives. “Lord, have mercy on us.” What a waste. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/48 "2011-05-04T01:24:36Z")
When Facebook blew up with it. I was hanging out chatting online with a friend and idly checking my Facebook feed, and saw the massive avalanche of simul-posts start to roll in about it. Was quite surprised by how cheerful I felt about it. If you’d asked me last week how I’d feel about bin Laden dying, I’d have shrugged and said, “I don’t think I’d give a shit.” It turns out I did give a shit. Still sort of processing that. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/49 "2011-05-04T01:33:50Z")
I learned about it that night. I was playing an MMO and a friend told me it looks like it’s being reported that Osama is dead. I turned on the TV after killing my goblin and watched the rest of the night. I also picked up my level 50 mage pants so it was a double win for me that night! ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/50 "2011-05-04T01:54:25Z")
At about 8:30 Pacific time, I had just finished watching _Firefly_ on my DVR, and when I went to see _The Amazing Race_, to my dismay I found that it was preempted by some kind of breaking news… “BIN LADEN DEAD” (…what, a heart attack or something?..) BODY IN US CUSTODY (!!! WOOHOO !!! USA! USA! USA!) Fortunately, they ran the episode at 9:00, but I was flipping channels so I missed the beginning. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/51 "2011-05-04T02:05:39Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > I feel almost nothing, other than a discomforting sense of alienation from half the people around me. Story of my life. Back on topic, I first heard that Obama was making an “unusual” announcement on the Huffington Post at around 10:30pm. Then I checked out the SDMB and found a thread on the announcement. As I waited for Obama to speak I refreshed the thread and got my news from there. I don’t really care that Osama died. What impresses me the most was the way we caught him. Straight up Jack Bauer style assassination mission. Complete with analysts doing an incredible job of gathering intelligence, and the President of the United States watching the mission in real time, giving a gusty go ahead order. I like knowing that the US has that kind of capability. It makes me feel safer. Much safer than five years ago, when I couldn’t trust the government to determine if a dictator had weapons of mass destruction. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/52 "2011-05-04T02:08:27Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Who needs to read a newspaper or watch the telly when the SDMB gets me the important news 100x faster. I’d turned off the TV and was clicking around on the board while waiting for a new response in the _Game of Thrones_ thread that I could disagree with. You’ve never seen anyone turn the TV back on so fast . . . ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/53 "2011-05-04T02:12:08Z")
> [@Ace309](#): > > Random chants of “USA! USA!” during Mets-Phils on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, followed by an explanation from the commentators. That’s how my mom (diehard Mets fan) found out! She says they also flashed it on the scoreboard. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/54 "2011-05-04T02:19:40Z")
Honestly I was a bit surprised. I just expected the US Military to let the guy live out his life in hiding. After that I was kind of impressed that Obama pulled the trigger. I was kind of hoping he’d end up in custody, I expect he’d have hated that more. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/55 "2011-05-04T02:34:16Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > But..I thought rejoicing in someone else’s death was wrong? I was asking what you did not what you should have done. 😉 > [@gonzomax](#): > > I had mixed feelings. I know people who traffic in death often get it for themselves. He was a terrible person ,but his time may have been past. I doubt he was a big factor in terror anymore. > Our sneaking into another country to kill someone in the night does not make me feel good. A trial would have been much better. No, that would have been a procedural and security nightmare. Although perhaps we should have kept him alive a bit to juice some info out of him but considering Al-Qaeda is decentralized now, it wouldn’t be much anyways. > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > My reaction was (and still is) very mixed. Am I glad he’s dead? It was pretty much inevitable once he was identified as the force behind the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. Another death added to the thousands already killed doesn’t even the score. > > I’m also concerned that the American celebrations of bin Laden’s death seem to (once again) completely overlook America’s role in causing terrorists to want to fly planes into their buildings. Another famous quote; those who refuse to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. It seems like Americans think bin Laden’s death means this is over; I think that bin Laden’s death means it’s time for Act Two. That is laughable, that’s like saying Jews had a role in Hitler causing to genocide them. ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/56 "2011-05-04T02:57:25Z")
**Qin** , how does your joy at bin Laden’s death mesh with this previous statement from you: > [@](#): > > Yes a member of the human species has died, regardless of who or what he was, it is a tragedy, for we are all God’s children ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/57 "2011-05-04T03:16:20Z")
> [@Gestalt](#): > > **Qin** , how does your joy at bin Laden’s death mesh with this previous statement from you: See the post right above. ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/58 "2011-05-04T03:20:53Z")
So you think you shouldn’t have celebrated? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/59 "2011-05-04T03:27:21Z")
> [@Gestalt](#): > > So you think you shouldn’t have celebrated? Celebrate at the justice served but perhaps not at his death. Well I suppose I am human. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544/60 "2011-05-04T03:44:07Z")
It was Monday morning over here. We’re two hours ahead of Pakistan. Got up about mid-morning and turned on BBC TV, as is my usual wont, and they were talking about the unconfirmed report. Said Obama would hold a press conference soon (still Sunday night in Washington). Called the wife at her office and told her she might want to tune in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-bin-ladens-death/580544.md?page=4)