I’m certainly relieved. I do feel as though some measure of justice has been served. And yet, the “U-S-A! U-S-A!” response to Osama bin Laden’s death makes me uneasy. Not because bin Laden didn’t deserve what happened yesterday, or that it wasn’t “just.” He did, and it was. But I find the reaction of, say, the Boston Globe editorial page to be off-key.
Osama bin Laden’s death at the hands of US forces is about the best possible news…. [I]t carries the potential to rekindle the faith and unity that Americans felt in the first months after the 9/11 attacks. This time, however, the unity isn’t one of shock or fear, but of joy and newfound confidence…. His death, more than that of any single enemy of the United States, is cause for rejoicing.
Hmm. “Joy”? “Cause for rejoicing”? I don’t know. I am more impressed by the words of Newark Mayor Cory Booker:
He is dead. It was necessary and just. But I won’t rejoice. I honor the memory of all terror victims and recommit to the difficult work of peace.
Or, to my great surprise, Rudy Giuliani:
“I feel a great deal of satisfaction that justice has been done, and I admire the courage of the president to make a decision like this because if something had gone wrong everyone would be blaming him,” Giuliani told POLITICO Monday morning … “I feel satisfaction and some emotional relief, but I don’t feel great elation. I watch a lot of the celebrating and it makes me feel a little strange, I don’t know. Nothing erases the loss of all those lives.”
I also find myself in agreement with much of what the Vatican has to say:
“In the face of a man’s death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred,” the [Vatican] spokesman said.
There are a couple of quotes rocketing around the internet that seem apt to me. One is from the Book of Proverbs, verse 24, chapters 17-18:
Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
Another is from Clarence Darrow, the famous defense lawyer (though it’s unfortunately being incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain by just about everyone).
I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.
That doesn’t seem far off. The NY Times has an interesting roundup of a variety of reactions.
In any event, to return to the Globe, I’m struck by the evident glee with which the editorial page celebrates bin Laden’s death as a blow for justice and cause for joy and celebration, even as that page routinely condemns the death penalty in all cases as an “unjust, unnecessary punishment” that costs far too much with no corresponding benefit, and that “violates the protection against cruel and unusual punishment.” Rest assured that those who advocate bringing back the death penalty in Massachusetts have noticed as well.
However, the Bible snob in me can’t help but suggest a more accurate translation of Proverbs 24:17-18:
“Do not rejoice when your enemies fall,
and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble,
or else the Lord will see it and be displeased,
and turn away his anger from them.” (NRSV)
Or even the less accurate, but often interesting translation from The Message:
“Don’t laugh when your enemy falls;
don’t crow over his collapse.
God might see, and become very provoked,
and then take pity on his plight.”
I often complain that Christian too quickly pick and choose isolated Biblical passages. We are too quick to worship the God who calls for “justice [to] roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24) yet runs from, hates, and even ignores the God who “…pour[s] out [his] wrath like water.” (Hosea 5:10) However, there are still times (such as these) when it seems appropriate.
Not to get too off topic, thank you for these quotes!
Thanks for this round up of solemn reactions, I hadn’t seen them amidst all the ugly rejoicing, which worries me.
The Globe’s is so stupid. It’s like they thought they had two choices: expressing sadness over the loss of the kind thoughtful hero, like the Huffington Post seems to have done, or expressing elation and joy. They are really pandering here, it shows they are just elitist cynics, I think.
I hope the nationalists have gotten it out of their system, because it is a poor culture that celebrates death. I can’t say that I’m glad that he’s dead per se, but I am glad that bin Laden can no longer sow mayhem and division as he so desperately wanted. I’m sorry that could only happen with his death, but that is the path bin Laden chose.
Where do you get your reading of Huffington Posts reaction? Have you actually read anything on their site today? I really don’t understand what you are smoking.
@hrs-kevin Have you seen their front page? The picture they chose, with him in front of a bookshelf, as if he was a college professor. And the headlines were about how the US intended to kill him, as if that was an important point. It seems like they are mourning the loss of their favorite intellectual.
How does publishing a picture of him with books behind make him look like a college professor? Did you read even one of the headlines on that page?
Guess what, evil people read books and do sometimes sit in front of bookshelves. That doesn’t make them any less evil.
When you post stuff like that without even bothering to explain what you are thinking, you just make yourself look deranged.
I guess that UBL was on the very, very short list of people about whom I think it is okay to say, “I’m affirmatively glad he’s dead.”
I also assume you don’t mean the Eighth Amendment point too seriously?
Turning from U.S. law to international law, I think it’s pretty clear the killing was lawful for the reasons given here.
is that the Globe has argued strenuously that the death penalty is “cruel and unusual punishment,” and therefore unconstitutional, in all circumstances. Thus, the Globe would (I assume) argue that if bin Laden had been taken alive and tried, it would be unconstitutional to execute him for his crimes. Yet the fact that he was killed in a firefight is a moment for “joy” and “rejoicing”? Something doesn’t compute there.
By way of contrast, consider the Globe’s tut-tutting over the sentence of death given Saddam Hussein by an Iraqi court in late 2006:
I have not argued, and am not arguing, that bin Laden’s killing was in any respect unlawful.
I generally agree with your post above, but I’m not sure what any of this has to do with the death penalty. Bin Laden was the leader of an international organization that had declared war on the United States, and was unquestionably responsible for crimes against humanity. He was not a common criminal.
All of the reasons you note to disfavor the death penalty (as I do) do not apply to this situation. The Globe’s tone may be somewhat off-key, but I do not see the relevance of the Globe’s position on the capital punishment to this very unusual situation.
It seems to me that our disparate treatment of these three alleged villains highlights our own moral inconsistencies. Just after Panam 103, Muammar el-Qaddafi was evil incarnate. Americans applauded when Ronald Reagan ordered the 1986 attempt on his life. He was, however, rehabilitated when Saddam was the new baddest bad-guy. We now claim that we aren’t trying to kill him — do you buy it? We caught Saddam alive, then prosecuted, convicted, and executed him. We celebrated the killing of OBL with dancing in the street, apparently forgetting our outrage when Arabs danced in the street to celebrate the 9/11 tragedy.
I’m disgusted by all of it.
but to each their own. I get it if you don’t want to jump up and down about it.
Bin Laden’s path was the path of the sword; he died as he had chosen to live. If anything, it was a Karmic full circle. I see his end as the natural result of his chosen life albeit I don’t think I will ever know “all the facts”. What is being reported is too tidy and CSI like for me to find it quite believable.
Bin Laden was no ordinary murderer. Someone who is normally opposed to capital punishment in civil society would not be considered so irrational to favor the assassination of an Adolf Hitler or Caligula, especially if the alternative of apprehension and life imprisonment is by no means a guaranteed option. I’m happy he’s gone, and feel that he deserved his fate. Of course, I’m not as adamant an opponent of the death penalty as I used to be. Perhaps irrationally, the torture of helpless captives bothers me more than the assassination of cruel dictators or terrorist masterminds responsible for the intentional killing of thousands of civilians.
A touching and understated response from the NYFD:’Tonight, in firehouses throughout the city, our members are grateful for the news, and thankful to all the brave members of the U.S. military that had a role in this successful operation’.