Because someone else posted their thoughts on Bin Laden News.
And I replied to them, and thought I'd also post it here:
I think it was a matter of finding him took an awful long time, rather than lacking the specialized team to get the job done. I suspect once his location was sufficiently 'known' that this was pretty much going to be a done deal.
I'm not overly excited either. His continued freedom to plot further terrorist acts was a poke in the eye to everyone who lost loved ones on 9/11. They deserve a measure of closure and now they appear to have it, or as much as anyone can reasonably give them.
But this isn't a cause for celebration, unless what you choose to celebrate, is a measure of overdue justice being served. It's not a victory over terrorism - that is a fight which will likely never end, as extremism will always be there. This is a victory for justice against a man who deliberately courted the taking of several thousand innocent lives.
This isn't an American victory, as much as this is a small victory for the way of life that America largely supports. It says to me that killing innocents is wrong, and it will be punished in one of the only ways we have. It says to me that a society that largely functions on tolerance (imperfect tolerance, but it's mostly so) and has room for the ideals and thoughts of many, and the ability to live with neighbors who disagree, has a chance against what amounts to 'right-think' where only one opinion matters or can be tolerated. It says to me that a society which strives to be basically decent, can stand against extremism and intolerance. I fear we may lose and have lost too many of our own values in that fight.
There's a price for living in a basically free country. Individuals who base their lives on hatred and violence, can destroy innocent lives. Yielding our freedoms in the name of improved security (or more often, the illusion of improved security), serves us poorly.
I'm worried that with this news, people will forget that the tighter we secure our society, the more we change our behaviors, the more like the extremists we become. And they win, whether anyone realizes it or not.
It may be odd to think of it as a war of ideals, but in some measure that's what the 'fight' against extremism is. We fight for the right to live and let live, to let conflicting ideas and beliefs exist side by side, to agree to disagree. The extremist view lacks tolerance of anything that disagrees with itself, where there is only a single source of wisdom, of righteousness.
I don't think anyone has a monopoly on wisdom.
I think it was a matter of finding him took an awful long time, rather than lacking the specialized team to get the job done. I suspect once his location was sufficiently 'known' that this was pretty much going to be a done deal.
I'm not overly excited either. His continued freedom to plot further terrorist acts was a poke in the eye to everyone who lost loved ones on 9/11. They deserve a measure of closure and now they appear to have it, or as much as anyone can reasonably give them.
But this isn't a cause for celebration, unless what you choose to celebrate, is a measure of overdue justice being served. It's not a victory over terrorism - that is a fight which will likely never end, as extremism will always be there. This is a victory for justice against a man who deliberately courted the taking of several thousand innocent lives.
This isn't an American victory, as much as this is a small victory for the way of life that America largely supports. It says to me that killing innocents is wrong, and it will be punished in one of the only ways we have. It says to me that a society that largely functions on tolerance (imperfect tolerance, but it's mostly so) and has room for the ideals and thoughts of many, and the ability to live with neighbors who disagree, has a chance against what amounts to 'right-think' where only one opinion matters or can be tolerated. It says to me that a society which strives to be basically decent, can stand against extremism and intolerance. I fear we may lose and have lost too many of our own values in that fight.
There's a price for living in a basically free country. Individuals who base their lives on hatred and violence, can destroy innocent lives. Yielding our freedoms in the name of improved security (or more often, the illusion of improved security), serves us poorly.
I'm worried that with this news, people will forget that the tighter we secure our society, the more we change our behaviors, the more like the extremists we become. And they win, whether anyone realizes it or not.
It may be odd to think of it as a war of ideals, but in some measure that's what the 'fight' against extremism is. We fight for the right to live and let live, to let conflicting ideas and beliefs exist side by side, to agree to disagree. The extremist view lacks tolerance of anything that disagrees with itself, where there is only a single source of wisdom, of righteousness.
I don't think anyone has a monopoly on wisdom.