Osama Bin Laden dead? Hmm...

[Phemar]

So I'm sure you've heard the news by now. What are your thoughts? Was justice served? Did America have the right to storm into another country and kill a man? Is it a big conspiracy? Something to do with the Illuminati (hahaha)?

Discuss!

[Guybrush Nosehair]

I knew it was only a matter of time until this thread was started. I even briefly considered doing it last night.

To me, justice can never be served for the thousands that died at bin Laden's hands. The most excruciating death could not "make up" for what he'd done. I've heard people asking if we had the right to go into another country and kill him. For the safety of thousands, it was necessary. He started the war on terror. We chose to fight it.

I do believe that these events are real, but I would like to see the photographs that were taken. There is no reason that they should not be displayed to the public.

[WHAM]

I think it was about time! All fundamentalists and terrorists deserve what's coming to 'em!

[Calin Leafshade]

I do think it was necessary for justice to be served and he was a dangerous man who needed capturing or eliminating.

Having said that however, it always makes me a little sad when people celebrate the death of another person regardless of who it is and the fact that some otherwise upstanding people quite literally wanted him hung, drawn and quartered worries me a little.

[Bulbapuck]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI

But yeah, what Calin said.

[Matti]

Booooring..

If it would make the politicians here shut up about terrorism and undo recent awkwardly justified laws, then I'd be happy... but why should it?

[m0ds]

Not 100% convinced. Waiting on some photos of his shot up face  

Apparently they dumped his body in the sea hours after killing him. Did they have any neutral witnesses to identify his body? All I've seen is a video of a bed, some blood, and a roll of cellotape. Doesn't really prove to me they got Bin Laden

I'd love to be reassured they got him. But so far things to me are "sketchy".

Either way, about bloody time. I remember being in AGS irc whilst watching the 9/11 footage.

Every other of their 52 card game people have had a dead headshot. I'm not morbid, I just think it acts as fairly decent proof these people are 'dead' ! Maybe it's too early for this kind of evidence to be public.

This is interesting, and I'm sure I'll get wrapped up in some conspiracy debate about it somewhere - but I'm actually more interested in the recent discovery they found one of the black boxes from flight 447, plus the final days of the space shuttle service. Bin Laden? Who? Meh. Woulda been cool if they'd caught him back in the mid 2000's.

[Stupot]

I'd would love to say that I think it's a conspiracy.  I'd be more inclined to suggest he's actually been dead for years but they've strategically chosen now to announce it to the world.  However, I'm not going to say that because I have absolutely no basis for it and don't want to turn this into another moon-landing thread  

I do think the man should be dead (whatever the circumstances), and I frankly don't blame the Americans for singing and dancing about it, however vulgar it may seem to those of us who like to ride the moral highground.  9/11 was a day, so painful for the Americans, I can't even begin to imagine.  If this news brings relief and closure to just a few of those people, then that can only be a good thing.

I made this point to a woman on Twitter who got on my tits with her irate moralizing.  She quite rightly pointed out that this is not closure, and that the terror won't stop.  But so what?  To the Americans Bin Laden is not just a 'person', he is an icon of fear and evil.  It doesn't necesarily have to be the man's death they are celebarating, that's just by-the-by. They're really celebrating the symbolism of his death.  I really don't see the point of getting worked up about it.

[Mr Flibble]

I think if he isn't dead he'll probably announce that pretty soon.

But that makes me wonder about the US planning this so he'd do that so they could find him. That'd be masterful.

[Ponch]

I'm glad he's dead. Talk about someone who really had it coming! 

And Bulbapuck, thanks for the video link. Have you seen the Taiwanese CGI re-enactment of the operation? It is awesome! (It's also on the front page of my website -- shameless plug!)

[SSH]

Henry Cooper died the same day... obviously Osama was using him as a secret identity!

[mkennedy]

While it might of have been preferable to take him alive it is still better that he be dead than loose to cause more terror.
Also taking him alive would probably have been much more difficult and place more lives in danger. But if we were to have caught him there would be the question of trial and the cost, Just look at the controversy around the Khalid Sheik Mohammed trial. As for conspiracy, it would be nice if we got to see full autopsy results for Bin Laden. Did they really dump the body in the ocean? Weren't they going to cremate him? That does sound a bit suspicious. At least it should be interesting to see how everybody reacts to the news of his death, I am especially looking forward to "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" this week!

The question now becomes what are we going to do in Afghanistan.

[InCreator]

I don't think it'll make much change in anything;
Man like him has been probably readied for his sudden death or capture for past 30 years, back from the days he fought against russians in Afghanistan so his death wouldn't change much in organization and there's probably a successor available. After being martyred, there shouldn't be lack of candidates, neither.

Let's hope retaliation (which is pretty much guaranteed I think) won't succeed.

[Ishmael]

If he had gotten to set up a number of large buildings downtown NY with demolition charges and managed to fly two planes in to trigger those I'm sure he's got something rigged for this.

[Technocrat]

Does this mean we can stop all this patriot act stuff now?

[Anian]

Does this mean we can stop all this patriot act stuff now?

Lol, of course not, you silly man. In fact it's evolving from iPhones which just track your movement to the ones that also record all your calls and messages and give you electric shocks if words such as "terrorism" are used.

I don't know if Osama is dead or not, but damn it can they make a suspicious situation, wtf is wrong burrying the guy, more video and photos...seriously, like the whole US Army just lives for doing suspicious and strange moves. I know it's sounds weird, but I still think 9/11, at least, was a strange development of events.
Also on the note on death, I would gather this man is a bad person, but still celebration of somebody dying is just wrong (and I don't mean like celebrating their life after they died, like Dias des muertos etc. I'm more than fine with that, but somebody actually being killed). Not to mention that. as others said, this probably doesn't change much except maybe he'll be used as a martyr figure.
Celebrating such stuff instead of maybe finding some closure or peace about the ones that lost their lives just shows how values and humanism have been shriveled to a sad state in much of modern society.

[Dualnames]

we're actually happy for a person being dead because that person did the 9/11. Next thing is that we're gonna believe saddam husein had weapons of mass destruction. No one with a brain half a size of a monkey's butt should believe that the towers fell from the planes and that this was all Bin Laden's stuff. Then again people believed that the earth was the centre of the solar system.

[Technocrat]

...No one with a brain half a size of a monkey's butt should believe that the towers fell from the planes...

...not sure if serious...

[Khris]

They buried him at sea because

MSNBC reported, "There also was speculation about worry that a grave site could have become a rallying point for militants.

That's pretty reasonable in my book. They did confirm it was him using DNA from his sister. I don't think the US/Obama would publicly declare him dead if they weren't 100% sure they actually got him.

To my mind the celebrations are a bit out of place. Al-Qaeda isn't like a company with Osama as CEO, it's more like a huge franchise with hundreds of independent cells. Some say there isn't even a network, it's just lots of semi-organized small groups.
His death isn't going to change much, apprehending him and putting him on trial would have been much more satisfactory and grabbing/killing him a decade earlier would have warranted much more celebration.

Regarding the various conspiracy theory comments here: anything can be included into a conspiracy theory. No matter how many evidence there is that says otherwise, a conspiracy theory can always be expanded to include it as further proof. That's what makes it utterly pointless to argue with believers of conspiracy theories.

Dualnames:

No one with a brain half a size of a monkey's butt should believe that the earth is round and the south pole isn't an ice wall protected by government agents who shoot anybody down who tries to cross it.

(Note: the above quote is not to be understood as an attempt to argue with a conspiracy believer because doing that is utterly pointless.)

[Monsieur OUXX]

Was justice served?

No.
Justice was infringed in so many ways that it's hard to start a list.
In a nusthell: A man was killed without proper judgment, and outside of the law. (Yeah, the UN is still called "the law"). He was probably tortured first.
And they confiscated the body, too.
The list is endless.

Did America have the right to storm into another country and kill a man?

No.
When they joined in creating the UN, the US agreed to respect some laws. Therefore, here they infringed their own law.
It's all a big joke from the moment they invaded Irak to punish a Saudi millionaire who had nothing to do with Irak.


I'm amazed the question is even asked.
From the real world, with love ♥.