Monday, May 2, 2011
The Death of Bin Laden
Posted By Stephen Dark on May 2, 2011, 3:56 PM
Amanda Dickson on KSL Radio's Grant and Amanda show seemed fascinated yesterday by the killing of Osama Bin Laden occurring around the same day as that of Hitler's suicide. Hitler, however, was an enemy combatant. What exactly was Osama? ---
As the United States' public enemy No. 1, it seems one thing he may not have been was worthy of due process. Saddam Hussein, you may recall, was tried before he was executed. As became clear today, Bin Laden was unarmed when captured and dispatched with two shots to the head.
It was difficult to ignore the chants of "USA, USA," that apparently colored early reactions from New Yorkers, among others. With the eerie echo of a sporting fixture, the triumphalism that encompassed a man's demise - even one with so much blood and terror on his hands - certainly gives pause for thought.
Author David Swanson wrote a gut-check-piece on the Bin Laden killing titled "Killing resolves nothing," which was endorsed by Veterans For Peace. Among his concerns, he wondered whether this country can return to the world as it was before 9-11 and 'the war on terror' began.
"Is it too late to go back 10 years in time in some particular ways?" Swanson writes. "As we put bin Laden behind us, can we put the degradation of our civil liberties and our representative government, and our honesty, accountability, and the rule of law behind us too? Can we recover the basic moral decency that we used to at the very least pretend and aspire to?"
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