that Bin Laden was sent straight to hell
Sure, this won't stop Al Qaida, but I think it's an important moral victory. Nice job by all those responsible (American, Pakistani, and otherwise) for helping to eliminate this mass murderer!

Perhaps Bin Laden should have been captured, ideally. We needed more proofs on stuff his involvement even in 911, right? Of course he has been rumored to die somewhere, somehow, someday, so compared to that, being killed by the US army and his body being officially confirmed isn't that bad, but still.

It's good thing that they actually managed to find him in what 10 years. But as usual, I'm not glad that someone's dead, even if he did plan the WTC-strike. To me, he's as bad as bankers on Wall Street ruining people's lives or Kim Jong-il.

And I don't think justice had happened, if they happened to find him and kill him. I would wanted to see him get justice on ICC, preferably without the antiques of Milošević.

Just gotta hope that there won't be any counter-strikes, or if there will be, they will be stopped.

yea, i can't feel joy when somebody gets killed and for that i'm glad.

i'm sure this will change nothing in regards to future terrorism. we should get mentally ready for the imminent waves of retaliation.

There's joy and celebration all over twitter. And, you know, I can understand it. I can understand the hurt. The pain. But like some of you guys, I can't celebrate the killing of anyone. I have really mixed feelings over this. It felt wrong when some in parts of the world celebrated the deaths he caused (assuming he did - I have little reason to doubt) and it feels wrong now.

In a way, there's an understandable sigh of relief over this. An ending. For some, maybe retribution. The events of 2001 are still fresh. But then so are the deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq and more since then. Deaths on all sides. Was it worth it? Will celebrating the killing of this man lead to more peace or...?

I think people should answer for their crimes. But that requires a trial. I can't imagine he would have been taken in easily so maybe this is the only way it was going to end?

Mixed feelings.

I will be happy when it is possible to board a commercial airliner without having gone through any security checkpoints. I think, we'd have to kill a lot of people before that is possible.

i was flying back from phoenix to shitcago this afternoon,, my flight was supposed to depart at 3:10,, i got thru security in 10 mins, but US Airways was short a plane (it had to go into maintenance after the last flight) and we ended up stuck waiting till almost 6:45

I guess it's a victory of sorts.

I'm kinda expecting this to trigger a counterattack before long, though...

I'm happy Bin Laden is dead! Not because this is necessarily the best way to serve justice (although I think this was the only way it was going to come out), but because this way he can no longer hurt others (he was still extremely dangerous and powerful even in hiding) and his death is a blow to Islamic militants across the globe. I have no doubt others are plotting more attacks, but honestly these militants do not need an excuse to find reasons to kill. This certainly is far from the end of the war on terrorism, in fact it's not even the beginning of the end, but it's still an important victory. I can understand why people are celebrating.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-ge … 56184.html

It would be a victory if it reduced threats. I don't believe we'll ever have peace when we're busy celebrating the killing of others. Any others. If you can justify the killing of others, well, you can justify the killing of others. And so we kill.

I still don't really know where I'm at with this, except to think that it's probably the only way it was going to end. Conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with the whole buried at sea thing though, and rightly so. It's a bit, ahem, fishy. Is it even possible to verify the identity of someone 100% in 24 hours? I don't know. Especially given the fact that some pictures were said to be him in the past when they clearly weren't. He's a man of many faces.

If we were living during the time of World War II would you still be saying that we'll never have peace when we celebrate the killing of others? I'm fairly certain we have peace with Germany despite the fact that we celebrated the killing of Hitler. You can argue if you want that Bin Laden is not the same as Hitler, but I would counter that he shares many similar qualities, and he's not much different really, just slightly different times and methods, but same ideology. Also, I don't think it's so much celebrating that we just killed one person, but that justice was served and that this is a blow to the terrorist network. I agree, the conspiracy theorists will be up in arms so to speak, but then again they would come up with their wacko notions no matter what (even if his naked body was displaced in the Smithsonian... and uh, I'm glad it's not)!

I think that's why Bin Laden shouldn't be killed. We can only say it's apparently him who did it, according to U.S. government who invaded Iraq because of "there being lots of mass destruction weapons", which later turned out to be bullshits.

Godwin's Law in 11 posts. No, the actions attributed to Bin Laden do not in any way compare to the devastation and genocide of Hitler. Not even close. Such a comparison does a disservice to the millions who died in WW2. And we have peace with Germany but over 60 years later we still do not have peace.

Let's not forget that Hitler was able to do what he did by selling the idea of Jews as the villain. As I said, if you can justify killing...

But really, Hitler has no place in this discussion.

Edit: Cedille, you bring up a good point. I do wish there had been a trial for similar reasons. But I suspect taking him alive may not have been an option.

Seriously? Are seriously claiming that we don't know who really masterminded 9/11??? Are you a conspiracy nutcase who thinks this was done by the US government, or perhaps the Jews (I've read both on numerous conspiracy websites)! How do you account for the fact that Bin Laden released numerous videos to Al Jazeera in which he over and over stated how his network had brought down the twin towers and how he lauded those murderers and how more American lives would be killed...etc etc.
How do you account for the fact that numerous Arab governments and people either condemned him, or applauded him, but in either case no one claimed he did not mastermind 9/11. The evidence for this is simply overwhelming.

Calm down I of course know a person seen as Ladin appeared in some tapes in which he stated he was behind 9/11, some years after the initial denial (the credibility of them was doubted by some, iirc, but as I don't watch/hear them, so while I can't comment on it), but why not taking that guy to the court, and asking him why, how, he did that. Given the importance of 9/11, each fine detail of the incident should be examined, and we have the right to know them. It was more like prosecutors and polices were jumping into assassinating him. I'd have no problem if Navy SEALs tried to capture him but eventually failed, but as far as I read some articles at this point, Obama just gave an order for assassination.

I've been reading otherwise.  If the L.A. Times is to be believed, for instance: "The U.S. troops gave Osama what was described as a brief opportunity to surrender before firing several times, at least once into the head."

Either way, I think I'm siding with NeoGAF's Stumpokapow on this one, here and here.

I agree that ideally it would have been better to capture him and have him stand trial. I've read that the SEALs did actually try to capture him, but once the firefight started they killed him. I don't know if that is actually true, but I really find it hard to believe that Bin Laden would surrender. I can also understand why they choose to bury him in the sea (don't want to have a gravestone that could be used as a rallying cry), although I do hope they managed to get enough evidence to convince would-be conspiracy theorists that he is actually dead. Also, your statement "person seen as Ladin" seems to indicate that you doubt he's really behind the attacks. If you're a so-called "truther" then I don't think any amount of logical reasoning and evidence will convince you otherwise. My experience with truthers is that for whatever reasons, they come up with these crazy theories that have no hard evidence, fail when put to the test, and are more convoluted than the story in Metal Gear Solid 2!

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop taking the pill that inexplicably has become necessary for me to sleep restfully.

I have no idea what Cedille believes but that's not what that statement indicates at all. There were later tapes with images supposed to be Bin Laden that didn't look like him at all. That says nothing about whether he did or didn't arrange the attacks.

Ah my apologies, I thought he meant the tapes in which you can clearly see Bin Laden and which have been "authenticated" as being from Bin Laden.

Oh wow whee, Bin Laden was real, and he really was behind the 9/11 attacks?! [/sarcasm]

D'I mean, HAH! See, and you all thought he was just part of the U.S. government's imagination! Shows you right!

...so, who's the next level boss we need to defeat?

P.S. I haven't been reading the news lately, so this was especially a shock to hear about.

What's wrong with Chicago? You live in a lousy suburb?

Granted, I've only been to downtown Chicago proper, but every big city has lousy neighborhoods...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110502/ap_ … _laden_dna

" Yet, he said, "as with the birther conspiracy, there's going to be a set of people who are never going to be convinced. People filter the information they receive through their current attitudes, their current perspectives."

To be sure, even photos and video, subject to digital manipulation, may not provide the final word to everyone. But Seth Jones, a RAND Corp. political scientist who advised the commander of U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan, said the administration should do all it can to minimize doubts.

"There are always conspiracy theories," he said. "There are individuals who believe that bin Laden wasn't involved in the 9/11 attacks."  "

Well, what can you do? After all, we live in a day and age that despite everything you see, people still believe in a flat Earth (see the Flat Earth Society). I had forgotten for a moment about the birthers! ha, good ol' Donald Trump. Yeah, he's not getting my vote (if he makes the ballot)!

I'm in Elk grove Village in the NW burbs, but its still 'chicago' which means it's flat, its cold, its rainy, its snowy, the traffic sux, the taxes suck, the winter sux, and summer is short and sticky.

I bought a house in the foothills of northeast Mesa, AZ on saturday,, so i'm out of here in 6 weeks...

Someone is not happy in IL
I heard they raised taxes by 30% in IL this year, is that true? I think AZ is beautiful, although you have to get used to scorpions, tarantulas, tarantula wasps, and other such critters. I think the AZ bark scorpion is the actually the most dangerous scorpion in the US (and very small)! The one thing I did not like about AZ, the sprawl. I would like to keep AZ free of ubran sprawl, but it seems like everyone wants to move out there (perhaps it's the next CA or FL, although I don't know why anyone would want to move to FL)!

Dunno if I shared this story before, but my brother-in-law was actually supposed to have been on one of those ill-fated flights to attend a business meeting, but my sister (with whom he'd only been married for three months at that point) argued that he'd been spending too much time with work and talked him out of going.

So earlier today (or yesterday, I guess, technically) I gave my nieces and nephews an extra hug each, for all our luck.

Right, I forgot about all that... (>_<) There was that blizzard earlier this year that closed down Lakeshore Blvd.

Also: Illinois Nazis.

Been out to AZ myself, loved it, but that was during the Spring (April, while the Midwest was still cold and rainy) - and that was Scotsdale, for that matter, wealthy suburb; don't think I'd be able to withstand 100 degree temperatures in the Summer, though. Also, water's gotta be expensive out there, and don't they have droughts and water rationing? Still, there's worse places to live. New Mexico was nice too, where I went.