How to react to Osama bin Laden's death: a guide for fellow hand-wringing liberals.
Bulletpoints for easy reading:
- Yes, this doesn't actually win us anything. You're right. One consequence of being constantly in hiding and on the run is it makes it somewhat difficult to run a worldwide terrorist organization. He no longer holds the reins.
- "An eye for an eye". Understood. We covered it in Sunday School too. The death penalty is wrong. To have captured him would have been better, agreed. But, unlike other figures who ought to be subject to civilian courts, there's no doubt that bin Laden is a militant, not a civilian. Given his level of protection, he'd never be captured without force.
- Oh man, how much the "War on Terror" cost us. How much has been spent on this effort, and how much blood has been shed in two wars. The freedoms we've forfeited. Try not to think about it too much. We tend to obsess over these things. We can get back to it tomorrow.
- Yes, celebration is the wrong reaction. That is brutish. This is a response to a crime, and a terrible moment in our country's history. Killing Osama brings a sense of closure, or justice, but does not make it all better.
- This is symbolic — a man responsible for the mass murder of thousands who had, for a decade, seemingly got away with it, but didn't. At least take solace in the fact that, sometimes, bad deeds are punished. And in that, you're allowed to be a little happy.
