Osama bin Laden is dead. (How hard) did you celebrate?
 

I speak for myself when i say that all the cadets at the United States Air Force Academy went nuts. No alcohol, no wild orgies, just lots of adrenaline, cigars, and a nonstop chant of "nah nah nah naah, hey hey HEY, good byeee"

What did TFP do on this momentous occasion? Any TFPers about that mourned his death? What did TFP think of the President's speech? What kind of retaliation can we expect? How fast will Wal-Marts around the country run out of red, white, and blue streamers?

I don't know that I celebrated, or would celebrate anyone's death. I expect justice has been served.

What I'd really like to know, though, is how it took the world's only remaining superpower a full decade to hunt down a six-foot-six Saudi terrorist on permanent kidney dialysis.

I know revenge is a dish best served cold, but I think it may've gotten freezer burn by now.

im in the same boat as levite. no death should be celebrated. i didnt celebrate when saddam was hung, i didnt celebrate when osama was killed, i wont celebrate when GWB passes on.

but i will echo what ive said on the other osama thread started today that im drawing comparisons between saddam/osama deaths and the shia/american reactions.

i have to add that this is the type of celebrations that some on the muslim world did in the aftermath of 911, and which was frowned upon and criticised by the west.

how is this any different?

I read an article, then I watched President Obama's speech.

I honestly don't even care at this point. Tomorrow, innocent people will be sexually assaulted at airports for absolutely no reason, prisoners will be unlawfully detained at Guantanamo and numerous other military prisons, we'll still be involved in unnecessary wars that are wasting untold human lives, phones, emails, and other electronic correspondence will be monitored without warrants, Muslims will be targeted by hate groups, and the victims of 9/11 will still be just as dead.

His death would have been more meaningful to me if we hadn't sacrificed our souls to try and get revenge on him and his ilk. It would have been more meaningful still if he hadn't so totally and completely defeated us.

You're totally right, Will. I think I'd also feel more celebratory about justice being served had it happened ten years ago, before we wasted uncounted billions of dollars and uncounted thousands of lives on a war that had nothing to do with this guy, and let the fight that actually did have something to do with this guy go to hell in a handbasket-- not to mention using his name as an instiller of fear to justify shredding the Bill of Rights six ways from Sunday.

It is times like this that I'm embarassed to be a citizen of the US. Are we seriously having a party over this chickenshit-bullshit?

It doesn't matter that he's dead (or off being interrogated somewhere). He won his war. We cowered and changed our way of life.

All the "freedoms" we talk about defending we gave up to give ourselves the illusion of safety. We won't get that freedom back.

A decade of dead/crippled kids and a gajillion dollars that would have been better spent on education or bouncy castles... gone.

Isolationism: I'm for it.

agreed, damn it...

I found out at 4 am, when I couldn't sleep because of someone snoring. I didn't celebrate. I just spent a moment wondering who they're going to use to replace him now... since this country always needs someone to focus their energies on and explain why they're sending people and money overseas. I did feel a little moment of "I'm glad the ones who lost loved ones can have some closure," but just a moment. Then I started to try to think of words to kick S's ass in scrabble. Now what?

Yeah, there's nothing to celebrate. Just one more death.

I've been behind Obama even before he was elected, but in that speech he seemed to be expecting a big pat on the back and a hearty, "Job well done, Chief!".
Some of his luster is gone for me.

I have a question.
Obama said they knew where Bin-Laden's been since August, correct?
Why would the world's most wanted man stay in one place so long?

Pretty much same feeling for me.

Now we're going to get a bunch of "rah, rah, rah we final won!" To paraphrase Chris Rock- What'd we win? Go check your mailbox everyday for your OBL is dead prize. My guess is you won't find anything... ever.

I really don't care that he's dead but I'm not celebrating it either. We're still there and probably will be for years. He sucked us into committing endless resources to the region just like he did with the USSR back in the 80's. Something we ironically recognized as a way to bleed them dry and gave him help to do so. Now that we're being sucked dry no one seems to get we're getting fucked in the ass with no reach around.

I too could not sleep and went to BBC World Service Online at 03:00 GMT.
I did not celebrate and am a little embarrassed at the US response.

I expect I will watch the TV movie.

I find it impossible to celebrate death. In this case, the "momentous occasion" is the passing of a deeply tortured soul who lived at the mercy of a closed mind.

I'm flying today, so it will be interesting to see if things are any different than usual. Mind you, I'm travelling on short regional flights in Canada, but still.

I've thunk this thunk many a time the last decade. Wondered at the wondrous hypocrisy that has us get knotted up over personal expression and the right to think and dress and act the way we wish, side by side with the real life destruction and dismissal of hard earned rights and freedoms. The whining is coupled with the terrible morass of "security" that is such a brake on our lives, our wealth and our energy. Of course hypocrisy and indignation is being expressed by fundamentalists of all stripes, backgrounds and inclinations.

The complete inability of people everywhere to just let each other be sometimes staggers the mind. What evolutionary quirk has resulted in this universal bullshit we shovel all over each other? I mean, we have been pulling this crap since we were squabbling over cave rights with the Neanderthal. Enough already, people.

sheesh

I'm detecting varying degrees of responses out in the real world. There's a lot of stuff like what EventHorizon described - the meat-head "we're #1" chants and folks willing to dance on OBL grave. I'll be honest - I don't look to any of the service academies for anything different, and I'm sure that the only differences in West Point and Anapolis were the colors of the uniforms and the faces last night.

Then there's the "meh" response, which I think is the opposite end of the spectrum and equally pig-headed. Regardless of whether or not his death changes anything, regardless of the continued "War on Terror", this is a symbolic moment. A promise has been fulfilled, and while OBL may not have been important to al-Queda on a daily basis anymore or exercised any positive power over any substantial group, he embodied "The Enemy" for the majority of Americans. Logically or not, most Americans will rest a little easier for a while.

I don't stand and cheer but I don't ignore the significance of the event. Hopefully this will be seen by the Arab Spring movement as a huge positive and allow them to move forward to determine their own destinies.

I'm more hoping that something inspires an 'American Spring'.

I admit to being slightly reflexively thrilled when I first heard the news. It was a feeling that was pretty much identical to how I feel when I see a bond villain get his comeuppance.

Then I thought more about it. Will his death change anything? Probably not on our end. Does it mean we're "safer" (pretty sure we're already really safe from terrorrism)? No. Given the history of the pentagon's reporting of incidents like this, is it highly likely that they will tell the most thrilling version and least accurate version possible? Yes. Can we now stop pretending that it's a good idea to give up our rights in exchange for the perception of security? No, apparently not.

celebrate the squalid end of a squalid story? why?


the only thing that may be worth celebrating will happen with this absurd "war on terror" is declared over. when the colonial occupations of iraq and afghanistan are ended. when a basic and necessary rethinking of priorities gets underway that centers on a considerable reduction in military spending. when the privatized surveillance industry brought to you by hysteria inc. is dismantled.

well finding this guy and killing him was a giant step that needed to happen. consider what people would think down the road 20 years: "well we had to leave and we never actually caught him because he was just too damn sneaky."
it really would turn into vietnam II.

even though this isn't the end of the war and even though terrible things will continue to happen around the world, how can this big of a step towards giving more people hope that not only the government is doing its job be bad? i think it gives reassurance to friends and family who are fighting, that they aren't doing so in vain. i dont think it was a large victory by any stretch of the imagination and the war is definitely not over, but aside from the "Hey guys! Look what the Chief did!" part of the speech, i like what happened.

as for the amount of resources committed to finding him and fighting against Al-Quaida and their associates (please forgive the spelling), at this point haven't we as a country moved on from "hey he killed our guys, we need to kill him back"? at first, of course we wanted revenge but we're committed to ensure the Afghan people don't have to put up with crap like that in power. i think when we finally leave A-ghan it'll be from victory regardless of the costs, not withdrawl because of the costs.

We've always been at war with East Asia.

war is peace.

Doubleplusgood, RB.

i guess i was too quick to turn to the keyboard without properly digesting the events. what i realize now is that i wasn't celebrating another one biting the dust, but rather celebrating the magnitude and importance of the result of so many years of work.

RB i want to discuss that with you but i am required elsewhere. i promise i'll get back to it though because i think its a really interesting idea to debate.

Fuck Osama, I'm glad that bastard is dead.

I am tremendously encouraged by the reaction on this thread. The most surprising thing to me is that my Facebook newsfeed, which is overwhelmingly Torontonian and of a similar demographic to me (whatever that means), was way more positive about this, compared to this thread, which is more diverse and overwhelmingly American.

You folks continue to be a sophisticated, humanistic bunch. The successful killing of a person should not only be judged by the target's deeds, but by the capacity for violence in the killer. It is good to be back.

I'm not even willing to accept he's dead. I mean he might be and I guess probably is dead. Did it happen the way the DoD states? I think it probably happen any way but that way. The DoD has a long history of spinning bull shit and calling it gold. Pat Tillman, Jessica Lynch et el convince me the DoD is near incapable of any forum of truth.

And burial at sea... in a couple of hours? Seems odd to me. If he not dead he's getting massive amps applied to his nads in an attempt to get info out of him.

I'll be honest: my first thought, after hearing he was dead and how the United States had supposedly done it, was that this will make a great movie. A summer popcorn flick--you know the type.

But that's about it for me--on the surface, it's a bit interesting, but otherwise I don't see how this is going to change much.

What do we do when the Bogeyman is gone? We invent a new one. We should know that by now.

The whole 'burial at sea' thing was kind of surprising. Something smells about the way such a huge announcement was made Re: Osama's death, followed by a quick dump in to the sea.

Anyway. I'm glad he's gone. Hopefully we've weakened Al Qaeda enough to avoid more terrorists acts and we can focus on important things like reducing the national debt.

cant say that i celebrated. all i did was have a moment of reflection for the people that we (as a country) lost on 9/11. i personally wonder what people were thinking celebrating in the streets.

I wonder who will replace him as the #1 terrorist (or what ever you call it). i am just glad that the people that lost someone in the attacks have some sort of closure.

On a lighter note:

http://i.imgur.com/JbU2F.png


Dllish is our resident expert; but I believe Islam prefers a quick burial. Burial at sea prevents any site from becoming a shrine as would have been the case with Saudi Arabia.

I have to admit, I smiled a bit when I heard the news, but that was because it meant the end of all this news coverage of the "royal wedding." :rolleyes:

That's funny. Anyone watching Fox today to see if they've turned this in to a negative for the President yet? My guess is they won't be able to do that for a day or two but it will happen. My guess is it will start with "He said he knew back and August... why wait until now?" "Yeah, you'd think he'd have done something sooner but was busy looking for someone to forge that birth certificate."

Sorry, there's so many of these:

http://regretfulmorning.com/wp-conte...den-dead-4.jpg

Forgive my irreverent humor. The announcement did come in the midst of a Trump interview.

I generally check conservative forums to see what direction conservative media is going to take. Based on what I've seen so far, it's likely that the right will credit the military for the kill and lambaste Obama for taking credit. This works because it fits with the right's military worship and Obama taking credit for something the military did is easy enough to attack. It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to fit the narrative.

There's also a lot of talk from birthers that this is a massive distraction from the birth certificate issue, like Clinton launching bombing missions to distract from the thing with the affair.

Nothing can be done to stop the right-wing hate train.

Nevermind that the president is the Commander in Chief and seems to have authorized the operation. :rolleyes:

This is why I barely trust most popular media sources anymore.

all that matters for the conservative media apparatus is winning make-believe battles for news cycles. it'd be kinda hard for even the faux news set to wrangle this one, however, as almost the entirety pantheon of bush administration war criminals have congratulated obama on this meaningless action. presumably because they see in it a vindication of some kind.

I'll believe it when I see it.
You cannot tell me that someone didn't take pictures.
And part of me wonders what the hell they did to his body to need to dump it.
So, no, I didn't and won't celebrate.

i still think that the ship-board freezer that bin laden's been kept in these past ten years malfunctioned and he started to thaw out, so they dumped him overboard.

There is no shortage of OBL siblings and offspring. DNA testing would be very easy and conclusive. I'd bet money that it will be released in a few weeks when complete.

I'd also bet money that pictures exist. After the fallout from the Saddam video, it will never be made public.

There is nothing to be gained by holding onto his body. It's a huge liability from a public relations perspective. Dumping it into the ocean and quoting Islamic sensibility makes more sense. At least we learned something from Saddam's execution.

Are you saying that the Soviets (and their Russian successors) are better than us at body preservation?! Let me remind you of American Exceptionalism in the fields of taxidermy and mortuary science! May zombie Lenin eat your bourgois brain!

USA!
USA!
USA!

its all a conspiracy

http://a4.l3-images.myspacecdn.com/i...42b62b58/l.jpg

Interesting how the "special news report" came on TV and pre-emted the last half of The Celebrity Apprentice.
You can just see the Oval Office meeting.... "and if we wait another couple 2 minute warnings, we can really screw up Trump's show as well".