I was sitting in Bangkok airport waiting for my flight to Dusseldorf when news came through that Osama Bin Laden has been killed. Within moments of the first rumours coming through on BBC, there were signs of cheering outside the White House, congratulations all around, and of course the self-congratulatory message from Obama followed soon after. The scenes from outside the White House looked as though a massive crowd of people had all together won a major lottery. Quite amazing I thought. But in all this, I had two thoughts:
Firstly, why is it that when the USA kills a terrorist, the world rejoices and congratulates itself, the military, the spies, etc., but when Israel kills a terrorist, the world (and sometimes, even my employer) condemn it in the strongest of words? Something isn't right here.
Secondly, is it just me who feels slightly ashamed to be a part of a society where people rejoice so much at the murder of an individual? By no means am I saying that Bin Laden is a nice chap, but given how the USA is supposed to stand for equal justice for all, fair trials, and all that jazz, how can we be so elated when we kill someone without going through that? Then again, perhaps it is just because I am against capital punishment in general, but it almost feels (I hope this doesn't put me on the CIA Most Wanted List) that at times we stoop down to too low a level. I mean if killing Osama was necessary (ie., live capture wasn't possible), then I'm all for that. But it somehow doesn't feel right to me to be carrying on such public celebrations at the death of another person.
My sister and I were talking about this today, it's kind of morbid to be celebrating the killing of anyone. Yes, the US finally got the intelligence to locate Bin Laden, that's great, and if they'd captured him and were putting him on trial, I could understand the celebration. But as it stands, I find it a bit weird.
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