Celebrate bin Laden’s death – not me

I will only point out that I am not a Buddhist.

Well me either, but aside from him saying he was a buddhist - he mentioned how I felt. I can understand the celebration, but it doesn't seem right to celebrate a death.

Religion has nothing to do with it.

Death isn't an event that inspires celebration for me. The closest I have come to it is feeling relief when my dad finally let go and was no longer in agony. I probably felt a minor sense of relief when I heard of Bin Laden's death.

I have never wished anyone dead, but I have read some obituaries
with great pleasure.
- Mark Twain.

Odd that a thread about compassion never got much attention from the rah rah, go USA crowd.

Yeah, you're really mean, Linkat, a regular 5'2" Tasmanian Devil.

I only saw a brief newsclip on CNN showing some kids, I guess, 'celebrating' outside the White House on the night the president made the announcement. I heard there were others -- some cheering at a sports event, etc., but no one in my community 'celebrated'...there were no cheers that I've seen reported from just regular people, unless they did it in the privacy of their homes.

In the case of those outside the White House, I think they were cheering the president's words that "Justice has been done" and perhaps the courage of those that carried out the mission.

My main concern was that there were other people killed as well along with him, like his present wife. I'm sure the woman had nothing to do with 9/11. So she gets killed because she is Osama's wife? I understand it was unavoidable. After all, she was with him in that hideout, but still it is somewhat sad.

And I certainly can appreciate celebrating justice.

It's nice to know there are people out there that do not rejoice in the death of others. Good on ya!

I wasn't offended or disturbed by the celebrations, I just didn't get them.

I was glad to hear the bastard had been killed, and even more so that he had been killed by the American military, but I felt no urge to run out into the street and celebrate. Maybe it was because it was ten years after 9/11, or the realization that the death of Osama didn't mean the end of Islamist terrorism.

Having said this, keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of celebrants were young people and, in fact, they were celebrating the success of the US mission far more than the death of Bin Laden.

They sang the national anthem and God Bless America, but didn't chant "Death to Muslims!" or burn korans.

There really was nothing ghoulish in their celebration.

Most of the kids celebrating were probably somewhere between 8 and 14 when the 9/11 attack occurred. It must have been a very strange and unsettling event for them. Who knows what angst has built up in them since that day and how satisfying it may have been to release it in song and celebration.

It's not only unfair to condemn the celebrants, it's silly. There was nothing terrible about their reaction.

My bet is that if, as we all expected at the time, there were repeat horrendous terrorist attacks on America after 9/11 and our way of life significantly changed as a result, we all would have taken to the streets to celebrate his death.

If the citizens of London who suffered tremendous hardship during the German bombings of WWII were able to see it all end because of the death of Hitler, I doubt any of us would begrudge their celebrations.

Rev. Lombardi's comments are quite nice, and of course if every Christian truly followed the teachings of Christ he might have been describing the norm rather than the exceptions, but that's no more the case than every Buddhist truly following the teachings of Buddha or every Muslim truly following the teaching of Mohammed.

I would caution those who feel more sober and superior than the celebrants. Chances are pretty damned good that you could find yourself in the streets celebrating the death of someone if the circumstances were right.

That's all true, Finn. Why do you never consider the angst that has built up in the same aged children from Iraq and Afghanistan who have been used and badly abused [somehow 'abused' just doesn't quite capture it, but you know what I mean] for years, and not just in one localized area, New York, but all over their country.

They have seen, repeatedly, their families slaughtered, they themselves often get to play with cluster bombs and breath depleted uranium spread by the US and the UK.

But you know, it's not only not you, there's rarely any Americans saying these things, talking about how much the other side has suffered, for, do I have to remind you again, two illegal wars started against people who had done nothing at all to the US, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Come on, really, where is the sense of shame?

If the old canard about the US doing this for "the citizens of these nations, the poor, the downtrodden" was true, you would expect to see a lot of commiseration with the travails of these people, a lot of concern expressed for their sorrows, and yet, we see none.

You've really gotta ask yourselves, why is that? It's totally incomprehensible.