Osama and Us: Celebrating
Death Like it's a Football Title
"I
don’t know how the 21st century world, where Western, democratic, humanist
societies ascribe to Christian values, celebrate the death of a man late into
the night. As if it were celebrating a football championship. There are times
that it would be best not to show off our contentment."
Japanese Naval Marshal General and commander-in-chief of Japan's Combined Fleet during World War II, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was the man behind the attack on Pearl Harbor. As with bin Laden, no tears were shed over the operation to kill him. But even in the case of war, is it proper to celebrate the death of another human being?
On April 18, 1943, U.S.
fighter jets intercepted and shot down the aircraft carrying Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
as he visited Japanese bases in the Solomon Islands. He was a kind of public
enemy number one for the United States, after he had planned and coordinated
the operation to attack Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Thanks to the ally of
"intelligence," which had made the interception and decoding of an
ultra-secret message from the Japanese Navy, it became possible to eliminate
the mastermind behind the "Day of Infamy." Morality condemning the
operation, a cold plot to physically eliminate this man, was never considered.
The two parties were at war and Yamamoto died in combat.
A poor comparison would be
September 11, 2001 and the attack on the Twin Towers, which for the Americans
was a second day of infamy. On that day, the U.S. president, George W. Bush, declared:
"We are at war." In a broad sense, Osama bin Laden, the 21st century Yamamoto,
was commander of a belligerent army, and if we want to reassure our consciences
in the face of this cold plot to kill him rather than put him trial - we may
say that he died in combat.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
This, at least to me, is the
best argument to justify some relief, which I do feel, over the demise of this
man, who represented everything that we should fear most: barbarism,
fundamentalism, intolerance, cruelty, fanaticism, regression of civilization
and war paranoia. We know perfectly well that if al-Qaeda had access to a dirty
nuclear bomb, they would detonate in any of our cities they could: in America,
the United Kingdom, Spain … or Portugal. Their project to restore the Grand Caliphate,
with the recovery and re-Islamization of the Iberian Peninsula, can only be
compared to the warlike thinking of Hitler when he swept through Poland, and
wanted to sweep through the USSR all the way to the Crimea.
But I still feel a certain
"bitter aftertaste" when I hear the voices of civilized people,
elected by the Portuguese - a country that, as we were reminded by Mário Soares, was a
pioneer in the abolition of the death penalty … welcome the execution of a man.
No death should be cause for celebration. But that isn't all that's at stake. As
an academic exercise, if a Portuguese force cornered and detained Osama on our
territory, would we obey our own laws? Would we refuse to extradite him to
countries that apply the death penalty or life imprisonment? Would we turn him
over to the United States? Look at what they said: "The disappearance
[good euphemism …] of bin Laden is a morale boost" (Foreign Minister Luís Amado).
"A victory and blow to terrorism" (Defense Minister Augusto
Santos Silva). "Congratulations to the United States" (Ribeiro e Castro, president
of parliament's Commission on Foreign Affairs). "A great
achievement!" (European
Commission President Durão Barroso). What do these politicians have in
common? They are all Portuguese, they are all against the death penalty, and they
are all delighted that bin Laden was killed like a dog.
He got what he deserved, the
reader might say. I might even agree. But I don’t know how the 21st century
world, where Western, democratic, humanist societies ascribe to Christian
values, celebrate the death of a man late into the night. As if it was
celebrating a football championship. There are times that it would be best not
to show off our contentment.
