But so what? Clearly the implication was “you say this stuff is different but it will lead to recruitment among our enemies… and that is a bad thing and we are causing it.” no? I mean, hell, we’re dealing with a demographic whose more rational members organized a series of lethal riots over cartoons… that had been published long before the actual riots. They’ve got more than enough recruiting material as it is and I don’t really see a problem with people being happy about the death of a creature like OBL. He’s dead, good, happy happy joy joy.
The US reminds me more and more of Imperial Rome. What we really wanted was a triumph, with captured enemy leaders in cages.
On the plus side, displaying his corpse in Manhattan, preferably in a diptych across from a copy of Obama’s birth certificate would have been fuel for lots of PhDs in the 2100’s.
**
“Medieval concept of legitimacy to rule by might and birthright in the early 21st century: The case of Obama and Osama”** Miley* Smithic-Portwhistle.
*“Miley” is at the peak of its revival as a first name in 2150.
I’m being neutral here, merely observing that it looks ugly and will be used against you. I agree they have more than enough anti-USA propaganda as it is. But why add to it unnecessarily? Especially when the overall effect is so unattractive.
I think gloating over the death of OBL may be understandable but ultimately undesirable.
This may be a UK-centric view but generally the view over here was raised eyebrows at the amount of celebration.
Penny for the Guy?
Heh!
I’m pretty sure that if someone hurt my son, I’d want to capture him and slowly cut off his body parts, bit by bit, just to make him suffer. A shot in the head sounds too easy.
I don’t think it’s gruesome so much as it is an emotional response. The problem with celebrating Bin Laden’s death is not a matter of a ‘culture of violence’ so much is it potentially overshadows why he was hunted down in the first place.
Violence begets violence, so they say. But doing nothing will not stop violence. Killing Osama bin Laden for the Americans is kind of like Mossad killing terrorists for Israelis. It’s a matter of…honor…and…yes, respecting the life once lost. Kind of a paradox, but somehow true.
No, it’s as if a nation of 300 million people has a few hundred people who want to play that game.
I’m not street celebrant or carouser, but I’m goddamned sick of the sanctimony and mouth-covering mortification of the maiden aunts of the world. Can your fake MLK quotes and tiresome public scoldings. People are acting like human beings. Get over it.
A good bit of the desire to see the corpse, IMO, comes more from mistrust of our own government than from a desire to wallow in a dead terrorist’s blood. We’ve been lied to so much in the past that we now doubt everything our government tells us.
I joked about Donald Trump asking for the long term death certificate. Well, here it is folks. So the government shows you a dead Arab. What are you going to do? Run your own DNA tests?
your point being?
I concur. Far more want to go on living their lives than want to see gory pictures. There’s a certain subset (mostly men, I’d wager) who are bloodthirsty enough to seek out those things; this just has the added tinge of being a justified killing so they can be righteous about their perverse interest.
If that’s some sort of Guy Fawkes reference, it does seem relevant.
There is certainly a connection, but I’d like to know what point is being made.
I wouldn’t be so sure. There have been tribes where what the combatants feared most was being captured and turned over to the enemy’s women. At least, I read that in a Travis McGee novel and it sounded real.
It’s easy to find a small minority of people preening for the cameras (or Internet audience) in an objectionable way. I suspect that the vast majority are rejoicing in traditional and non-morbid ways (or just getting back to work as usual), to the disappointment of those squeaking and stamping their tiny little feet over “bloodthirsty American triumphalism”.
Yep, specifically to Guy Fawkes Night.
I would have thought it was obvious. The UK celebrate the killing of a terrorist and burn him in effigy every year.
As to the OP. I don’t really have a problem with the displays I saw. Yeah in a perfect world I’d rather these things were a thing of the past. We don’t live in a perfect world. People can be very blood thirsty animals.
Hey! That started off as a wholesome ceremony and was only later that it was Guy Fawkes that we were burning!
It started off as Pope effigies, sometimes with cats inside so they screamed realistically.
My friend tried to bring up the Lockerbie bomber (AL Megrahi?) reactions as an example of how British people are oh so much more enlightened when it comes to this sort of thing. Apparently we were all OK with an early release on compassionate grounds compared to the baying for blood from the American camp. I seem to recall both opinions being pretty well represented, both side of the pond.
Asking for the corpse to be displayed is a bit macabre, but I say let them have their catharsis. It’ll simmer down in time.
Correct, but that is a fact not a point. Are you saying that is OK or not OK?