On the Bin Laden News
So, like Shumashi, I was also thinking about the whole assassination thing today. That's because last night I spent most of the evening in a state of anxiousness and nervousness that it actually had shut me down. Kris would start talking to me and it just wouldn't even register.
I woke up this morning, though, to find this outcry about how we shouldn't be celebrating the death of another human being and about how there was no trial and how the US apparently single-handedly has corrupted the justice system or something (Because, really, sure. Polpot's fate. Yeah, that's justice, sure. Right. Three squares and fucking CABLE.)
Atfer all of the talk and even trying to amke light of how upset I was over some of it, I think it boils down to a couple of things.
1. I understand what assassination is, and it has been used since the beginning of government, pretty much.
2. I understand that sometimes, assassinations are carried out for the good of the people.
3. I feel that murder of a person is wrong.
Wait, pause, there it is. I have found the thing that is hanging me up, and it took me all day to really look at it.
3A. I feel that the murder of an INNOCENT person is wrong.
3B. I feel that a mass murderer who killed hundreds of people and spread hatred wherever he went is not innocent, and therefore, his murder is not inherently wrong.
The taking of a human life is wrong, but if you were to tell me that in order to save my sister, I had to kill someone who was attacking her, I would do it. Just as I would applaud someone who killed a serial killer throughout the course of self-defense.
The way I see dealing with Osama is that this is self-defense. Why do I say that? Because of statements like this:
"I am not afraid of the American threats against me," he said. "As long as I am alive there will be no rest for the enemies of Islam. I will continue my mission against them." - October 2000
"There is America, hit by God in one of its softest spots. Its greatest buildings were destroyed, thank God for that. There is America, full of fear from its north to its south, from its west to its east. Thank God for that. What America is tasting now is something insignificant compared to what we have tasted for scores of years. Our nation [the Islamic world] has been tasting this humiliation and this degradation for more than 80 years. Its sons are killed, its blood is shed, its sanctuaries are attacked, and no one hears and no one heeds." - October 2001
"We counted in advance the number of casualties from the enemy who would be killed, based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors... I was the most optimistic of them all … due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and the floors above it only. This is all that we hoped for …... They were overjoyed when the first plane hit the building, so I said to them: be patient." - December 2001
I could keep going, but I just can't stand to anymore. The fact is that this was a man who would have loved nothing more than to die seeing every last American murdered by his hands. I do not believe in any way that he wanted the "American people" to rise up against the president for the sake of their own freedom, but because he wanted to see a country eat itself from the inside until nothing was left but blood and bone.
This is the same man who helped put the plan in motion that left me and thousands of people staring at the TV screens the morning of September 11th, 2001. I sobbed harder than I had ever done so before. And I didn't cry that hard again until my grandfather died. I was in terror that I had lost four family members that day.
And it wasn't just the US that he attacked. There are many other people all over the world who are relieved he is gone, and have hoped that with the symbolic head of the serpent cut off, the body will wither and die.
I wouldn't have wanted a trial. I prefer it this way. Why do I prefer it this way? You give me the impartial jury that would sentence him to anything that he would deserve. You give me the sentence that begins to even compare to the torture he has put so many pepole through regardless of creed, color, race, or country. You give me the fucking promise that he won't get to sit in a HOME somewhere like fucking POLPOT and get to laugh and laugh at the captors who give him more fucking basic nourishment than they can give people STARVING IN ETHIOPIA. You give me the fucking guarantee that he won't get LET GO like Milutinović. You give me the guarantee that I wouldn' have to watch the trial and burst into tears knowing a man like that will never feel the remorse over the death of a human being that the justice system assumes he will one day feel with the money from millions of people all over the world caring for him.
When you can give me all those guarantees, then I will tell you:
Here is the dagger, Cassius. I guess you didn't need to kill Caesar, after all.
I woke up this morning, though, to find this outcry about how we shouldn't be celebrating the death of another human being and about how there was no trial and how the US apparently single-handedly has corrupted the justice system or something (Because, really, sure. Polpot's fate. Yeah, that's justice, sure. Right. Three squares and fucking CABLE.)
Atfer all of the talk and even trying to amke light of how upset I was over some of it, I think it boils down to a couple of things.
1. I understand what assassination is, and it has been used since the beginning of government, pretty much.
2. I understand that sometimes, assassinations are carried out for the good of the people.
3. I feel that murder of a person is wrong.
Wait, pause, there it is. I have found the thing that is hanging me up, and it took me all day to really look at it.
3A. I feel that the murder of an INNOCENT person is wrong.
3B. I feel that a mass murderer who killed hundreds of people and spread hatred wherever he went is not innocent, and therefore, his murder is not inherently wrong.
The taking of a human life is wrong, but if you were to tell me that in order to save my sister, I had to kill someone who was attacking her, I would do it. Just as I would applaud someone who killed a serial killer throughout the course of self-defense.
The way I see dealing with Osama is that this is self-defense. Why do I say that? Because of statements like this:
"I am not afraid of the American threats against me," he said. "As long as I am alive there will be no rest for the enemies of Islam. I will continue my mission against them." - October 2000
"There is America, hit by God in one of its softest spots. Its greatest buildings were destroyed, thank God for that. There is America, full of fear from its north to its south, from its west to its east. Thank God for that. What America is tasting now is something insignificant compared to what we have tasted for scores of years. Our nation [the Islamic world] has been tasting this humiliation and this degradation for more than 80 years. Its sons are killed, its blood is shed, its sanctuaries are attacked, and no one hears and no one heeds." - October 2001
"We counted in advance the number of casualties from the enemy who would be killed, based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors... I was the most optimistic of them all … due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and the floors above it only. This is all that we hoped for …... They were overjoyed when the first plane hit the building, so I said to them: be patient." - December 2001
I could keep going, but I just can't stand to anymore. The fact is that this was a man who would have loved nothing more than to die seeing every last American murdered by his hands. I do not believe in any way that he wanted the "American people" to rise up against the president for the sake of their own freedom, but because he wanted to see a country eat itself from the inside until nothing was left but blood and bone.
This is the same man who helped put the plan in motion that left me and thousands of people staring at the TV screens the morning of September 11th, 2001. I sobbed harder than I had ever done so before. And I didn't cry that hard again until my grandfather died. I was in terror that I had lost four family members that day.
And it wasn't just the US that he attacked. There are many other people all over the world who are relieved he is gone, and have hoped that with the symbolic head of the serpent cut off, the body will wither and die.
I wouldn't have wanted a trial. I prefer it this way. Why do I prefer it this way? You give me the impartial jury that would sentence him to anything that he would deserve. You give me the sentence that begins to even compare to the torture he has put so many pepole through regardless of creed, color, race, or country. You give me the fucking promise that he won't get to sit in a HOME somewhere like fucking POLPOT and get to laugh and laugh at the captors who give him more fucking basic nourishment than they can give people STARVING IN ETHIOPIA. You give me the fucking guarantee that he won't get LET GO like Milutinović. You give me the guarantee that I wouldn' have to watch the trial and burst into tears knowing a man like that will never feel the remorse over the death of a human being that the justice system assumes he will one day feel with the money from millions of people all over the world caring for him.
When you can give me all those guarantees, then I will tell you:
Here is the dagger, Cassius. I guess you didn't need to kill Caesar, after all.