Forbidden Donut

Meh.

My opinion on this matter can very succinctly be summed up by a quote incorrectly attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy."

-dan

RIP

I really do not care that Bin Laden is dead in the slightest bit. That said, if it comforts people that lost loved ones on September 11th, then I'm totally fine with it. I feel like people would have had more comfort from seeing the guy shackled in orange for awhile first, but that's just not how it played out.

I am a bit appalled by the reaction of many in the states, though. Like I said before, if people that actually lost people they cared about as a result of Bin Laden's actions, then I'm glad they could find a bit of comfort in something. What bothers me isn't their relief so much as the over-excitement and celebrations that swept over the country by people that weren't really affected by Bin Laden at all. It is mildly terrifying but oddly not surprising that people would celebrate the death of someone that had little to no impact on their lives just because they can paint the person as evil.

Kind of frustrated with ya'll reacting to a reaction that isn't even present in this conversation... But I'll let my reaction to your reactions to my non-reaction end with that.

However, I guess I need to explicitly state the way I feel so we can possibly move on to something more substantive.

Osama bin Laden didn't need to die. I understand the waves of cathartic release that swept across our nation, and I'm no hater... so w/e. Hopefully we regain our composure as a nation and class up. I'm not sure how this would play out were we to capture instead of kill the man, so I won't speak to how I'd have preferred this to play out. Good work SEALS for completing that mission so well. Not sure how I feel about the burial at sea, but having read that Saudi Arabia refused to take his body, it may have been the only option left. I'm not gonna cry a river over the dudes demise, but I'm not into the celebration either.

That said, the next few weeks could define the next _several decades_ of US foreign policy. I'm interested in that. At this point, the details of the operation are moot in comparison to the aftermath. What will the narrative be? We're seeing many different angles being tested. I want to know which stick, which are true, which are false, etc.

This event could also mean absolutely nothing in the long run and the bluster will just fade into history. I'd be interested in observing that as well.

How's the view from the high horse these days? :p

You posted an open-ended topic without any specific inquiry, and it frustrated you that people posted open-ended responses about their feelings of the subject?

Even in your reply, you haven't attempted to ask anyone anything. You stated a few of your opinions about the event (as did we) and then two possible results of the event. Was your intention to have us discuss your specific opinions? If so, why didn't you say so?

If that was your goal, then I will weigh in with my opinions about your opinions: If I thought that the 2012 presidential election would have previously resulted in anything other than a democratic landslide victory, then I imagine this event would have been the straw that broke the elephant's back, and the democrats would win the 2012 presidential election in a landslide victory regardless. But since I do already think the democrats have the election in the bag, then I do not believe this will have any significant or readily noticeable impact on US foreign policy.

I question OBL's sexuality and believe his mother to be a cheap floozy.

The Dalai Lama condoned it, yo!

First of all, Jason, I <3 you.<br />
Second of all, I have two questions. How much did it cost?

And then, how much are we really gaining in a "war on terror" with the tactics like this? For example, how many terrorists are we going to create by killing this one? In Iraq we forced our way in, tried to clean things up a little bit, and are now attempting to hand over the reigns of the country to competent people that we hope are going to do the right thing. This plan has a high potential failure rate of turning Iraq into an model democratic country where everything is just hunky dory, but at least it has a chance.

But I'm not seeing that goal with Pakistan. I think that the other side of the sword is going to come back to haunt us with this covert assassination style operation that killed OBL. We took out ONE man that Americans hated. And we instilled hate in a lot of people in the middle east for ALL Americans.

I think that it was a huge mistake to not have the Pakistan government in on things. It means a whole different thing if your own country acts against you than a foreign country.

Hopefully, they will come out with proof (from what they collected at his Pakistani Military guest house) that he had a leading role in another plan for an attack. I'd feel a lot better about it if they did.