A Late Note on Osama bin Ladin

I didn't comment on the death of Osama bin Ladin when it happened. My feelings on the subject are kind of complicated.

Am I glad? I am relieved that a dangerous criminal can't plot the deaths of innocent people any longer. At the same time, I can't celebrate the loss of a human life.

Was killing him justified? I'd need to know what the orders were to pass any kind of judgment on that. If he was ordered assassinated, I will feel differently than if the SEALs were ordered to capture him and were forced to fire on him by the situation. I sincerely hope that my government is above the assassination. Unless evidence to the contrary comes out, though, I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

How has the world changed? While the death of Osama is a milestone, I wonder if out attention shouldn't be more focussed on something else. The comment that comes back to me over and over is from a Saudi woman interviewed on NPR. She essentially said that, for people like her, Osama bin Ladin was yesterdays news. For them the heroes in the Middle East are the protestors in Egypt who accomolished more in a few weeks of peaceful protest than Osama did in decades of violence.

I hope and pray that this is true. It's hard to tell yet what kind of governments are going to form folliwing the Arab Spring, but I am very hopefull. For so long the conventional wisdom has been that the only way to deal with terrorism was to prop up some of the nastiest dictatorships in the world.

The heroes of the Arab Spring have shown us that there is a third choice; that peace with justice is not just a silly idealistic dream. I hope and pray that this change lives up to it's promise. I also hope and pray that we are wise enough to embrace it and do everything we can to help create a world where both terrorism and dictatorships are unacceptable.