Bin Laden

[chris_gerrib]

On Celebrating His Death

Brian Dunbar (bdunbar) and others take some issue with celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden. I do tend to agree that celebrating a death is unseemly, but there is a moral distinction here. Bin Laden killed thousands of innocent people, while those that celebrated 9/11 were celebrating the death of innocents.

By any standard of justice, Bin Laden deserved to die. Celebrating his death is celebrating justice being done. It's unseemly but not immoral.

The "Law Enforcement" Approach to Terrorism

The operation that killed Bin Laden is exactly the kind of operation we should pursue with other terrorists. It's the "pirate Bin Laden" approach. We go try to get the bad guy with whatever appropriate force needed. If he survives the getting process, we try him in a court. If he doesn't survive, we bury him.

Comments

[bdunbar.livejournal.com]

The excessive unseemly 'USA-USA' chanting bugs me. It's unseemly. We're better than that. I half-expected to see guys with rifles firing wildly into the air Palestinian-style.

A quiet 'oo-rah' or two is appropriate.


If he survives the getting process, we try him in a court. If he doesn't survive, we bury him.

No matter what the orders _said_, I don't think bringing ol Bushy Whiskers back alive was in the _plan_.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

OBL alive was part of the plan.

So was a sudden meteor shower during the attack.

It was, in other words, a very low-probability outcome.

[bdunbar.livejournal.com]

OBL alive was part of the plan.

Without seeing the five paragraph order (or, you know, whatever high-speed low-drag thing SEALs use) I doubt we'll ever know, for sure, what the orders read.

Things like this make me sad, a little, that I'm not in the military. Wouldn't it be great to have had even a minor role in this?

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

There are times I miss the Navy.

Then I remember standing watch on the bridge at 4 in the Aye Em and I change my mind.