Why I'm Glad Osama's Dead

In the days since Navy SEALs gunned down Bin Laden in his Pakistani compound last Sunday, reaction to the news has been varied.  From what I can tell, most Americans have cheered the killing as a victory over terrorism.  However, many people, mostly from the left, have expressed reservations, not only about the way the operation was carried out, but also about the elation exhibited by the general public.  The various rationales for these criticisms span a wide spectrum, ranging from concerns about the extra-judicial assassination of an unarmed man in his home, to indignation about the idea of celebrating the loss of life, no matter whose life it is.

Personally I find the loss-of-life argument hypocritical and self-righteous.  To say that we should never celebrate someone’s ultimate demise regardless of that person’s crimes strikes me as being dogmatic and uncritical.  Seeing a psychopathic murderer brought to justice is a good thing.  If one is a fan of justice, I don’t see a problem with celebrating its implementation, even if that entails ending a life.  I believe that some people do deserve to die, and if anybody was ever a strong candidate for punitive death, Osama Bin Laden is the guy.

The other criticism regarding the legality and ethics of targeted assassinations is one that I have a more difficult time reconciling.  There are two separate issues here.  The first centres around capital punishment as a means to bring about justice, and the second is the right of all accused criminals to a fair trial.

Although it is not prohibited under international law, I strongly oppose the death penalty.  This isn’t because I don’t think anybody deserves to die.  I’ve already stated that this isn’t the case.  And I don’t take the cowardly, faith-based position that only the “almighty” can decide whether someone should live or die.  Rather, my opposition to capital punishment is two-fold.

1)     The death penalty is cruel and unusual because the prisoner is informed well in advance of his or her execution date, forcing them to ruminate over their demise for agonizingly long periods.  I also find capital punishment indistinguishable from premeditated murder, in which the victim is strapped down, tied up, or otherwise rendered defenceless.  I acknowledge that the state is entitled to certain liberties not granted to individuals, but I draw the line at murder in cold blood.  On top of that, the condemned person is often a markedly different individual from the one who was convicted.  This is especially true in cases where the crime was committed by a teenager and the execution isn’t carried out until more than a decade later.

2)     The most obvious objection, and one for which I have yet to hear an adequate rejoinder, is the risk of killing innocent people.  It is simply impossible to construct a system that doesn’t result in the execution of innocents.  For me, this is enough to abandon capital punishment entirely.

In Bin Laden’s case, point #2 doesn’t appear to apply.  Furthermore, his killing is generally seen as an act of war, so #1 doesn’t apply either.  There is reason to believe that the SEALs who shot him considered apprehending him so that he could stand trial, but he resisted capture and they deemed it necessary to take him out, so there doesn’t seem to be any grounds for investigation of possible war crimes.  Ideally it would have been nice to see him taken into custody and put on trial, but there are legitimate concerns that this would have had a galvanizing effect on his followers and could have incited violence on his behalf.  Ultimately, I think many lives were saved because of his death.

But above all, the biggest reason I’m glad Osama Bin Laden is dead, is because I genuinely hated him and what he stood for.

I remember attending a public lecture on the Middle East a couple years back and there was a young activist woman collecting signatures for a petition.  The woman approached me and explained that the petition was aimed at getting the detained members of the Toronto 18 out of solitary confinement.  I politely declined to sign her petition on the grounds that - and I put to her exactly like this – “those guys tried to kill me”.  I could tell by the perplexed look on her face that she didn’t get it.  What I was getting at was that the young men who conspired to blow up the U.S. embassy on University Avenue, like all terrorists, didn’t care who they killed.  If I had been walking in front of the embassy on the day of the bombing and got killed in the blast (I only lived a 10 minute walk from there at the time), they would have been fine with that.

This is why the targeting of civilians is so reprehensible.  It is a personal attack on every individual member of civil society, regardless of whether or not those people are the cause of the terrorists’ grievances.  That is why I took the actions of the Toronto 18 so personally.  Those guys made a de facto attempt on my life and the lives of all the people I care about in Toronto.  How could there be any reaction other than to take serious personal offense?

Not to confuse the two.  Bin Laden is several leagues of evil above the Toronto 18.  And in addition to his targeting of civilians, he embodies every ideology that I despise, including misogyny, fundamentalism, unreason, dogmatism, imperialism, and fascism.  For those who revelled in Bin Laden’s ability to elude and humiliate the great imperial menace that is America, I remind you that Bin Laden had his own imperialist agenda for the world and it was much more insidious than anything the United States has ever coveted.  If he had his way, every human being on the planet would be living in a fundamentalist caliphate.

So to those who are rubbed the wrong way by the celebrations of Osama’s death I say, lighten up.  And to Osama himself, I say good riddance!