On rejoicing in death

Not to belittle the symbolic magnitude of Osama bin Laden’s assassination, both for American morale domestically as well as foreign perception and relations, but something irked me about last night’s jubilant crowds and patriotism-fueled chants. While it was certainly nice to see Bush-Cheney placards coexisting peacefully alongside HOPE t-shirts, images of scores of American young people rejoicing in the violent assassination of one man struck me as off-putting.

Osama bin Laden was doubtless despicable, answering for the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans some ten years ago. His demise was necessary, at this point for no other reason than to follow through on our commitments and to send an unmistakable message to those terrorist elements considering striking again: we will find you, and you will pay.

Our intelligence agencies and men in uniform have done an outstanding job bringing many of those responsible for September 11th to justice, and they deserve our praise and support for their efforts in harm’s way. President Obama’s focusing intelligence and military resources on the mission, in fulfillment of his campaign promises, is also to be commended. Sunday’s strike on Osama’s Pakistan compound caught all of us by surprise, and was a nugget of welcome news from a front many of us had long since considered forgotten.

However, the celebratory tone back at home surrounding his death felt inappropriate. I breathed a sigh of relief, granted, a sigh of pleasant surprise, at hearing the news late last night. But the images (and sounds from outside my window) of students celebrating this violence, drowning their volatile patriotism in college beer and to the tune of U-S-A chants perturbed me. A military action has killed someone. We are not a country that revels in bloodshed. We are not a vengeful nation of warmongers.

America does not celebrate violence and death. That’s what terrorists do.