They say that time flies once you reach a certain age (or when you are having fun). To me the decade from 9-11-01 to the events which unfolded last night have flown by. I’m not sure if the killing of Osama Bin Laden will have the same, lasting impact as the destruction, devastation, and heinous mass murdering of that fateful autumn day. I wonder how many will remember where they were and how they found out about the death of the Al Qaeda leader. How many of us can remember where we were nearly 10 years ago? I was at home watching GMA when the announcement hit and rushed out into the beauty shop to tell everyone out there.
Last night, I was reading on my nook and happened to flip to the local ABC network to watch the 11 o’clock news after everyone else had turned in. And I saw the blurb on the screen: Osama Bin Laden Killed. The news held me captive for the two hours it was on. People in front of the White House cheering “USA, USA!” It really was like the gathering, camaraderie, and patriotism felt by so many hours and days following 911. Kind of an awkward feeling: although most us us feel glad and grateful that the murderer was silenced somehow, the Christian in me questions if killing him is justified. However, in my opinion, the feeling that the head of this organization of pure EVIL is gone THIS time and in few other situations justifies the operation.
However, we should not be so quick to celebrate too prematurely. My cousin came downstairs last night and I showed her the news and told me that her husband was informed that the military is on alert. They did not know for what. Her husband is not officially out of the Army until May 8th (or somewhere thereabout) and could still be called and returned to duty. Who knows what retaliation the sects of Bin Laden supporters could exact?
But until then… God bless our military forces. May the thousands left in mourning during this war find whatever closure they can.
It makes me feel kind of ashamed to be part of a country where people are in the streets celebrating the death of a human being. Whether he was evil or not, that is God’s judgment, not mine. It was God’s justice to do, not Obama’s, not America’s. The whole thing makes me feel kind of sick, and yes, we should be prepared for retaliation.
By the way, I have a cousin in Afghanistan. He is the one at the bottom of slide #7 in this slide show:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/04/22/world/middleeast/22outpost.html
So God bless our troops, they were just following orders. They were the ones in harm’s way while Obama takes the “credit” – saying “taking credit” for the death of a PERSON seems ludicrous to me. And his national address was so full of “I”‘s and “Me”‘s last night that I almost turned it off.
In my opinion, justice is not to be served by human beings, not fatal justice anyway, and while forgiveness is the virtue I’m teaching 1st graders at Sunday school this month, it seems like millions of Americans could use the lesson as well. Honestly, those celebrating in the streets and taking to yelling out gleeful things on Facebook are making us all look like idiotic barbarians to the entire world.
Sorry for going off on your blog, but I don’t want the barbarians attacking my opinions on Facebook. 🙂
Rich was in Afghanistan as well. I will just say I am torn on this. Part of me is saying that it should have been HIS judgment while the other part is glad that he has been silenced and cannot willingly hurt any more innocents Makes me more human. And never be afraid to post your concerns. There are always two sides to every issue.
And I ALMOST changed the channel during the President’s speech as well.
Bush’s administration found Saddam Hussein, arrested him, and granted him a trial among his peers and fellow Iraqis. I’m not saying I agree with the hanging of Saddam either, but at least he wasn’t hunted down like an animal, slaughtered in front of his family, and then the act bragged about all over the world. Maybe Osama himself has been silenced, but I think anyone who thinks his reign of terror is over is fooling themselves. He still has students, followers, and there is no way they could have confiscated all his money, plans and other resources. No, this act just infuriated Bin Laden’s followers, and evil breeds evil. Killing a human being is evil, no matter who it is, and because of the actions of the US last night, there is now even more evil in the world, in my opinion.
I don’t listen to political speeches, nor was I perusing the news late night, so I didn’t learn of this until the morning. Our small group tonight had a short discussion on what a Christian response should look like. A couple of passages were mentioned, like Proverbs 24, particularly 24:17-18 which says to not rejoice at the fall of an enemy. Myself, I don’t really want to be like the Pakistanis (or was it Palestinians?) who were dancing in the streets in celebration of the fall of the twin towers.
And some of the people I overheard- keeping the body so people can urinate on it and such…
@taylhis- can you email me your facebook page? I tried to find it once but failed.