Osama Is Gone
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on May 2, 2011
Wow. Last night I was going into the kitchen to clean up from a lot of cooking done earlier in the day. I decided to turn the TV on in there, and since it was about 5 minutes after 10PM I decided to go to CNN since, as far as I knew, all sports activity was over and I don't usually have anything else to watch on a Sunday night.
That's when I heard that the President would be making a speech at 10:30 and no one knew why. Frankly, that was an interesting bit of mystery, and as I washed dishes I waited for what the big news was going to be. Then it kept getting delayed and before long, John King of CNN made the announcement on what the President was going to talk about.
I was somewhat disappointed. Not in the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed, but that we didn't get to hear it from the President first. Then we started hearing all other news about what had happened before the President spoke, and by the time he finally got around to his announcement, it was anticlimactic since we knew it all already.
There was a strange reaction around the United States. Spontaneous cheering seemed to be everywhere. People gathered at the White House and at Ground Zero, a place I've never wanted to visit and won't visit until something new is there. In communities across the country people left their homes and started spontaneous parades, chanting and singing the National Anthem.
At the Mets - Phillies baseball game, which I hadn't realized was on, people started chanting "USA" before anyone on the field knew why. At the moment the chants started they were in the 9th inning of a 1 - 1 tie; how freaky is that? And the two teams represent the two states that took it on the chin the most, New York and Pennsylvania. Talk about karma.
President Obama called former President Bush; that was a classy move. We haven't heard from Rudy Guiliani; I think that would be fitting. We've heard from some family members that lost someone on that fateful day. We heard from the Fire Commissioner of New York at the time. We learn more and more by the hour; it's amazing.
And Osama's been cast out to sea; nope, there won't be any memorials for this guy, no rallying place, no martyrdom spot, no senseless trial.
What was my reaction? Truthfully I didn't have one; I still don't have any real feeling about it. This man who killed so many, whom I've hated over a long period of time, suddenly meant nothing to me. Maybe it's the way they got him, in a mansion in a city close to the capital of Pakistan; yeah, they knew nothing about it. Maybe I wanted it to be in a cave as we've always been told he was hiding in. Maybe I wished that other Al Qaeda leaders had been killed at the same time. Maybe I wanted him blown up in some fashion.
I'm not really sure. I will say this, though. I'm glad he's gone. I have no remorse that he was killed. I have no remorse for the others once they're finally caught. At some point I only want it all to be over, and unfortunately, that may still be a long time coming. Bye Osama; it's been real.
What I also find curious is that, although trials have been granted even to nazis who killed millions, everyone’s suddenly fine about Bin Laden being killed in cold blood by a commando.
Gabriele, it’s not sudden. If we’d had the shot to take at Hitler we’d have done it. If Hussein hadn’t just given up like he did we’d have done it. bin Laden isn’t on the same level as the other folks who are still holed up at Guantanamo Bay and other places around the world. He’s the guy who took pride in planning the killing of more than 3,500 people at one time, and the planning of hundreds, if not thousands of others. This guy didn’t need a trial to convince anyone he was guilty. The rules changed, and he changed them. He wasn’t killed in cold blood; that’s what he did to others. He could have just surrendered, but he didn’t; 40 minute gun fight after all.
Nope, not guilty one bit; got what he deserved. Consequences of one’s actions you know; I write about it all the time.
I knew nothing about it until this morning, and then I thought it was a hoax.
Guess I fell asleep watching alligator Hunters last night 🙂
That’s a shame Carolee! lol I knew it wasn’t a hoax; the President would never do something like that.
…And at the end of the day, you just get what you deserve.
Exactly Vivian; totally agree.