Saturday, May 7, 2011

Castro and bin Laden

I've been quite busy this week, so again, slacking on the writing (at least here). Sorry.

A few days ago I read here that Fidel Castro had a comment about the US killing bin Laden:
Fidel Castro has criticized the United States for the manner in which its forces killed al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden, saying it executed him in front of his family. 
As I said in my last post, I have a problem with the fact that people celebrated his death by partying in the streets, waving banners, etc. However, the man was a criminal, a terrorist, and a threat to the safety of people everywhere on the face of this planet. I would have preferred that our reaction had been something more along the lines of, "Wow - how awful that it had to come to that, but at least he can no longer do any harm."

Regardless of the barbarity of the popular reaction in the US (and elsewhere), make no mistake: bin Laden died exactly the way he deserved. Faced with the arrival of an overwhelming number of maximally trained fighting machines, he could have chosen to surrender, either to save himself or to protect the people he supposedly loved who were hiding with him in his McMansion.

Instead he chose to put up a fight. Does that make the covering of his wife with bin Laden's brain matter the fault of those tasked with his capture? If they had held lethal force in check, would one of the (at least more) innocent soldiers been injured, maybe even killed? Is it possible he could have escaped? In either event, WHEN he caused more injuries or deaths, how would it feel to have been part of the team that let him get away?

bin Laden lived by the sword, and he died by the sword. We should not celebrate it, but we should be thankful it's over.

1 comment:

  1. My plan is to use MAXIMALLY in a sentence this week. Nice post! ::clapping:: Well said, my friend.

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