The No Spin Zone: Osama bin Laden's Death

From now on, I will entitle all posts dealing with politics/world affairs with Bill O'Reilly's mantra, The No Spin Zone.  I hope to follow in my idol's footsteps by editorializing in a manner that will be honest and educated even if that means being at times polarizing.  You won't always agree with me, and that's fine.  I'll live.

My first post in this area is about an event that rivals in importance any other event that has occurred during my lifetime.  It was a moment of celebration for millions of Americans and others around the world.  This event was the death of the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist, Osama bin Laden.  When the news first broke, I was shocked.  Even though I knew our troops are the best in the world, I thought because of the terrain of the Middle East as well as his sympathizers/supporters that were willing to hide him that he never would be found.  The irony, though, is that it wasn't the mountainous terrain or our enemies that kept us from him, but one of our allies, Pakistan.  But that really is a topic for a whole different post.

The news spread quickly.  From the thousands that gathered in D.C. and Ground Zero to the other guys in my dorm hallway, I witnessed many celebrations of this American victory.  They felt joy because they knew that America had triumphed over evil.  For the first time in their adult lifetimes, they were proud of their country... or maybe that was just Michelle Obama.

Over the next week, many debated over whether we should feel joy in the death of another human.  Many questioned what a Christian response should be to this situation.  Should we be upset that he was killed?  Or did Osama deserve his fate? I wrestled with these questions as I tried to form my own view of this event.

My opinion on this, though, has been shaped more through my father's one year deployment in 2004 during the Iraq war.  I'm aware, as we all have been made aware of, that there wasn't a connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.   But I think about the thousands of families that have been torn apart directly because of Osama's actions including the ongoing Afghanistan War, and I especially think of the families that were forever changed on the morning of September 11th.  I think of the thousands of lives lost because of this man.  I think of the empty chairs at the dinner tables across this country that will never be filled again.

Fortunately for my family, my father's departure was only temporary.  Many families, though, have not been so lucky.  These people will never be the same, and no military act will ever change that.

Although I do not celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden, it is for the families of his victims in the United States, the Middle East, and around the world that I am thankful that he is dead.

-Jeremy