A Deserved Death

This is my favorite!

Within minutes of the Obama press conference announcing the death of the current world's most hated terrorist, the Internet had a field day making snarky images. Facebook has also been blowing up with people arguing over whether we should celebrate his death or...well, mourn would be the wrong word, but not celebrate it. While I agree that no death should be outright celebrated (come on, we are better than that), some deaths are very, very deserved.

I'm a supporter of the death penalty. I think that some people do such atrocious things to others for no reason that they give up their right to humanity, and with that goes compassion and life. Osama bin Laden was responsible for hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths, and his own death could not have come too soon. But on the other hand, maybe chanting and singing and celebrating isn't the right approach. Maybe we should have a respectful moment of silence for those we've lost in the last ten years (still wrapping my mind around the fact that it's been ten years), and reassess our efforts in our war triangle.

Perhaps it's finally time to withdraw from the Middle East and focus our resources on strengthening out country from within. Let's spend that war money on defense (not offense), educating the poor kids who keep getting school days taken from them, putting people to work, and celebrating our own very unique culture. Maybe, if this was our goal, now we can stop "helping" others for long enough to help ourselves. Maybe.

After watching the press conference I wanted two things: to see a picture of the body and to learn about the SEAL who fired the bullet (and his brothers). I don't know if either will ever happen, but I'm glad for this milestone. I'm sorry it had to take so long, and I hope this means the end is coming soon.