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The Military

Journal Shadow Wrought's Journal: The Death of Osama Bin Laden 29

Journal by Shadow Wrought
Perhaps it is easiest to start with the conspiracy theories, and then work my way into the core thoughts. First off, that there are different accounts, different details, and different stories all swirling around actually makes more sense than not. Remember a lot of the senior folks were watching this real time from video feeds. I've been in the legal field 12 years, I've done my fair share of trials, and I can tell you just how easy it is for a group of people to all see the exact same thing and come away with different recollections. All this different stories aren't official, they're just from unnamed senor officials. A lot of them probably are privy to the information, probably might have even watched it real time. They just saw things differently. If it was all a hoax and a fraud, I doubt there would be nearly as much discrepancies. You also have to weigh the political risk of claiming Bin laden is dead, at the hands of US Navy SEALs, only to find out that he is not. There is simply too much political baggage. Remember, no one knew this was happening. There would be no reason for it to make the news if it failed. So, whatever your conspiracy theory may be, I ain't buying.

On to the crux of what I feel. I feel neither elation nor sadness at Bin Laden's death. I think a lot of that is because I have spent the last 12 years or so in litigation. I have had very just cases. Cases in which our client was severely harmed by the defendant, and we ultimately won. Justice prevailed. But the harm, once done, can never be undone. Justice is righting the scales. It means that someone is held accountable, it means that there are consequences for the harm someone has suffered; but it cannot simply undo the harm.

I believe the action we took against Bin Laden was justified. I will not shed a tear for his demise. But is death cannot erase the loss of the victims of 9/11. It certainly won't roll back all the liberties we've sacrificed on the alter of Almighty Security; nor does it make us that much safer. So what is there to truly celebrate?

I don't just mean celebrate as in be happy, I mean take to the streets en masse with fireworks singing patriotic songs celebrations. For... what? Because a single man, 12,000 miles away, isolated from the world, is dead? We're a nation of 300 million! There was never a chance that he could truly hurt us. How many Americans are killed every day by distinctly American means? Car accidents. Smoking. Guns. Obesity. Drugs. The fact is, from sheer statistics, no one is better at killing Americans than Americans. Perhaps even more importantly, that's the way we want it.

There was a fear that came to the US from 9/11, but I think it is misplaced as physical fear for oneself. After all, we live in a country that has mass shootings. Regularly. In schools, FFS! How scared of sudden violent deaths can any of us really be?

I think the fear instead was a psychological one. One of our traits as Americans is to be very inwardly focused. 9/11 reminded us that not only is there another world of people out there, but that there were a lot of folks in that world who hated us. Hated us and actively wanted us dead. And now, they actually had.

So that's why i think for a lot of people Bin Laden's death has been so visceral. He was the face of that hatred, and he is now dead. But just as irrational as that fear was, so to is it to think that somehow the world isn't still filled with people who hate us. It always had been. It always will be.

So we have a choice. We can acknowledge that there are people who want us dead and accept that they are very, very unlikely to achieve it. Leastways not before we succumb to one of our idiosyncratic deaths. Or we can continue to fear for our safety, and sacrifice our liberties in the hope that the only thing standing between us and another 9/11 is the TSA. (And that without groping our six your olds, or turning checkpoints into instant home porn, they're not up to task.)

I made my choice. I acknowledge that Bin Laden committed atrocious acts and deserved to die. I'm OK with my country being the ones to pull the trigger. But I do not accept that he ever had the power to truly threaten myself, my family, or the people I love, any more than they are threatened by the modern life we choose to live. I will not choose fear.
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The Death of Osama Bin Laden More

The Death of Osama Bin Laden

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  • And after hearing only the prosecutor's side of the argument with no cross examination whatsoever, you say he deserved it? Interesting...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by arb ( 452787 )

      I do believe that there have been numerous tapes from bin Laden confessing to being behind so many atrocities. His guilt was certified by his own words. If there is any doubt in your mind that bin Laden was behind the 9/11 bombing, several embassy bombings, the Cole bombing and many other terrorist attacks, then you are sadly deluded. He claimed these attacks as his own handiwork.

      He was guilty of some of the most heinous crimes and did deserve to be summarily executed.

      • Obviously you don't follow the sequence of events following your average attack. More than one group or person will claim 'credit'. What made him so special? Who verified the tapes in a sworn statement? You think it's ok to withhold evidence to protect 'state secrets' if it mucks up the investigation or doesn't jibe with a press release? If that's so, then screw you. The entire affair was premeditated. No, you're deluded if you think it's ok not to follow the rules just because you picked your target before

        • For starters, as I said, I'm not buying any of the conspiracy theories, or making it any more than it is. As for what is shown in court... I have been participating in trials for a decade. What the facts actually are, and what gets shown in court are very different. You assume that the reason the facts aren't shown is because they are damaging to our side. The reason the facts aren't always shown in court is because they can be construed as too prejudicial. I have worked on trials that were "close" on

          • ...I'm not buying any of the conspiracy theories...

            Actually you are... from the government...

            See, I'm not losing any sleep either, but I do recognize that American savagery is just as vicious as any other, with the corruption to match.. And 'the osama' has succeeded in getting the public to cower before authority.. Mission Accomplished! Enjoy your next flight...

    • Except that we're heard bin Laden's side - repeatedly - from himself. If someone wearing a mask rapes you, then comes along every day without the mask bragging that he raped you, you're not going to need a trial to decide in your own mind what's right. The trial is for the benefit of 3rd parties.

      Or you find your dog dead, it's throat slit. And then you look out the window, and there's a guy downstairs screaming about how he's killed your dog, he's waving the knife around with which he did it, and he's

      • Like I said, without adequate cross examination, and there was none, it's bullshit..

        I'm going to have to let this go.. It's arguing about global warming.. We claim to have a preponderance of evidence, and so far we have only proven we don't know shit.

        • The Defendant made multiple, public videos claiming responsibility. What Would you like to cross-exam on that? What proof are you looking for?

          • Simply too many breaks in the evidence trail.. Too many secrets that to me, destroy all credibility.

            This is a rerun of the OJ trial. We just couldn't afford that here.. Doing what was done was the 'cleanest' way out.. And for their sakes, I hope they 'burned the tapes' (destroyed all the memos)

        • And I would reply that if you believe that justice is what is handed out in courtrooms, that is also a bit naive.

          No application of the law can ever undo damage - it can, at best, only prevent future damage, and try to render some sort of offsetting compensation.

          In the examples I gave, neither a prison sentence, nor a fine, nor even execution, would undo the damage already done. The rape victim isn't un-raped, the dead dog isn't revived ... In that sense, the courts can never mete out justice, only app

          • You're really starting to sound like Glenn Beck..

            • Really? Let's examine that for a second.

              Glen Beck: History as an alcoholic and druggie stoner. Me: No, and never even tried recreational pharmacology.
              Glenn Beck: NRA gun freak. Me: Supports gun control.
              Glenn Beck: Mormon fundie. Me: Atheist.
              Glenn Beck: Believes US Constitution is final word. Me: Absolutely not - otherwise there would never be any amendments, and it needs more amending (pass the E.R.A., for example).
              Glenn Beck: Against euthanasia. Me: For (see Robert Latimer case).
              Glenn Beck: I

              • None of that makes your responses here any less pathological. And this one here is a case in point, as you just pointed out you never even heard of seen him. Well, I have, and I can easily say you two are more similar than you'd care to admit.. At this point I can't take you any more seriously than RailGunner

                • I'll bite. You say that we're alike, but you haven't listed any specifics. I've listed several significant ways that we're not alike, from what evidence I could find.

                  So, why not list the ways that you think we're alike?*

                  * though even that isn't a valid criticism of the views I expressed. After all, saying that a point is not valid "because someone else holds the same views" isn't an argument. It's the other side of the "argument from authority", which doesn't pass the Carl Sagan Balony Detector [carlsagan.com] :-)..

  • Because America is an arsehole, who has ruined their lives and continues to shit all over them, while stealing the few things they have of value - including their dignity. If it isn't Arabs today, it's Colombians tomorrow - and a long line behind them.

    OBL hated the US with the zealotry that the Hebrews on the Masada hated Caesar.

    • Indeed. The analogy I was initially going with was that the US is the High School Freshman who ends up Quarterbacking the varisty team to the championship and then becomes an insufferable ass.

      The problem with the analogy, and with simply calling the US arseholes, is that it is both very true, and very untrue. The US is far more conflicted than that.

      We are self-centered, assholes, bullies, and ignorant hate mongers. We also really, honestly, want the world to be a better place. We want things like

  • I have more fear for younger people with my disease to never being allowed to be born, than I have fear for a terrorist blowing me up.

    • Odds wise, I think you're probably right. In all honesty though, even if and when that technology becomes available, I don't think as many people will use it as you fear. I'm guessing even one is too many for you, but I don't think it will be as rampant as is envisioned. But, that's just my own hunch.

      • When it became available for Downs Syndrome, it became a routine test- and 90% of the parents who got an in-vitro Downs Syndrome Diagnosis, choose abortion.

  • "grim satisfaction".

    I'm no Harper fan, but he nailed that one.

    DG

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