We have all seen the videos of dirt poor Muslim men and women dancing in the streets chanting death to America while stomping on American flags and felt disgusted that people could have such hatred and indifference towards our way of life. "What is so bad about my life or country" we think as we go about our daily routine. I suppose that we all feel we are good people, a symptom of some survival mechanism present to justify our existence and continue plodding through the harsh cruelty that is life. But even without being a full blown existentialist we should be able to step away from ourselves and our society, if even for a second, to compare the celebrations of a death of a man to the scenes from Islamic countries we so love to hate.
I am not a Muslim apologetic. I am more in line with Hitchens on my stance of the middle east, even when viewed through my atheist goggles. Fundamental Islam is a threat to western society, and more often than not in this world we are forced to choose the lesser of two evils for no man and thus no nation is perfect, but one is closer than the other. The western practice of separation of church and state, freedom of speech, and demonstration are for more appealing to my view of the direction humanity should head in than the views of the fascist Islamic stance. These are people who kill over cartoons, execute people for being homosexual and delight in the genocide of fellow humans. While often flawed I feel the average Americans morality is superior to that of the average Islamic Fascists.
So what is the big fuss? It is so easy to fall in love with the idea of America swooping in and destroying the evil Osama. Yet something did not sit well with me as I watched the rallies of drunken college children chanting USA USA USA and running wild in the streets with American flags celebrating the death of another man. Was he an evil man? To some yes. If ordering men to kill other humans makes a man evil then should not a celebration be had for the death of any leader who orders humans to kill other humans? When Osama thinks he is talking to his imaginary friend in the sky I am sure that he feels justified in doing whatever nasty business you wish to attribute to him. To him you are the great Satan, corrupting his country and lessening the effect of his extreme belief system. But how does this differ from Bush or Obama (well Bush a little more so than Obama I suspect) claiming on getting orders to invade Iraq from his personal line to Jesus? Both are imaginary relationships that have justified in their minds the killing of not only military targets ( Iraq war buildings for Bush, the Pentagon for Osama) but also civilians ( the towers for Osama claimed thousands, Iraqi civilian deaths number in the hundreds of thousands).
I would rather see a criminal put on trial and convicted of his crimes than simply executed, perhaps this was impossible with Osama and the reports are saying that he resisted but the celebration is what sickens me. As I am against Islamic Fascism do I feel the world is a better place without Osama, sure. Do I feel that filling the news waves with people celebrating a man being shot and dancing around with alcohol and the American flag disgusting? Only as disgusting as you find the images of Islamic countries dancing in the streets in the same fashion.
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