Americans take to the streets amid news of bin Laden's death

[TomCADem]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Americans broke into celebration early Monday in a show of patriotism against the man who committed his life to attacking U.S. citizens, while those directly affected by Osama bin Laden's terrorist plots quietly reflected on the closure finally gained from his death.

Just before President Barack Obama announced to the world late Sunday that bin Laden was dead, a crowd began to form outside the White House gates.

A chant of "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" filled the night air, and the quickly growing group spontaneously broke into an off-key rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

"I was in D.C. during 9/11," said Mason Wright, 33, who recalled his days as a student at American University watching a second plane hit the World Trade Center in 2001. "It's hard to believe 10 years later, it's over."


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/02/bin.laden.color/

[Corey_Baker08]

1. Reminds Me Of President Obama's Election Night Victory!!!!

this is truly remarkable and unexpected event...Thank-You President Obama!!!

[Bozita]

2. Anybody hear any chants like, "Bring 'em Home NOW"?

[freshwest]

52. I think that's a given, but crowds can only focus on one thing at a time.

[krabigirl]

60. nope..au contraire.

[iverglas]

3. I guess it doesn't remind anybody

of those videos of crowds in the Arab/Muslim world celebrating attacks on USAmericans ...

Well, it does me.

Unseemly is the word that comes to my mind.


"It's hard to believe 10 years later, it's over."

Er, what exactly is this "it" that's over?

[coalition_unwilling]

4. Unseemly indeed. Remember how pissed off everyone got when the

resistance fighters in Fallujah celebrated the deaths of the four Blackwater mercenaries on video? Outrage cuts both ways and these celebrations smack of bloodlust and nationalist jingoism and little more.

Few people realize that the British referred to the Irgun Zvai Lum (Jewish resistance to the British mandate in Palestine)as 'terrorists' back in the 40s, thereby demonstrating that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter.

Saying "it's over" is like saying "I hereby abolish the sun". Good luck with that to those who think that a lo-tech tactic like terrorism is 'over' simply because one person has been killed.

[leftynyc]

8. Do you find it unseemly that

New Yorkers are celebrating? Do you think we deserve a few minutes of celebration after watching our skyline die, how we watched people jumping from 100 stories up to escape the flames? How we worried about our friends downtown not knowing if they lived or died until much later that day when the phones started working again? I really don't care what people in Kansas are thinking but New Yorkers will be celebrating today and nothing anybody says here on this board is going to mean a damn thing to us.

[iverglas]

9. Canadians died in the World Trade Towers

To my knowledge, there are no Canadians dancing in the streets tonight. And the dancing crowd I was seeing on TV was in Washington, DC, not New York City.

PM Stephen Harper said words to the effect of how killing Osama bin Laden had secured justice for the Canadians killed in the attack. That is "logic" that will forever escape me.

I have to admit that I and the car full of people I was in let out a few whoops when news of the Shah's death came over the radio. I probably did the same when Franco's death was announced. There may have been dancing in the street, more locally.

I see a difference that you may not. Part of it is that both died natural deaths, so Mark Twain's line about obituaries would apply. It's the glee at killing, when the killing simply is not necessary in order to remove an immediate threat, that I find unseemly.

It also just strikes me as dumb, frankly, in this case.

But hey, don't let anything anyone else thinks interrupt the festivities.


How about you, though? Any feelings about the sight of people on the other side of the globe celebrating the deaths of USAmericans, no matter how deserved the deaths?



html fixed

[leftynyc]

11. I remember very little

dancing in the streets after 9/11. I remember being mostly moved by the candlelight ceremonies, the signs claiming "we're all New Yorkers" - that kind of thing.

Remember almost 200 people working at the Pentagon were killed also. D.C. deserves some dancing as well.

I'm glad bin laden is dead and I would have pulled the trigger myself if given the opportunity. I think you're overthinking this, people are just glad he's dead (for very good reason). He wasn't just responsible for 9/11....his people had/have been killing Americans for a very long time.

[iverglas]

14. perhaps you remember Canadians

taking a whole load of stranded USAmericans into their homes when their planes, in the air at the time of the event, were excluded from the US. And Canadians singing your national anthem at a gathering on Parliament Hill (as did people of other nationalities in other places). I volunteered for the former, but it turned out my city was considered a potential target as well (since no one knew what had actually happened) so planes were in fact routed away from here. And I wasn't even bothered by that anthem-singing, where normally it would have seriously irked me.

That was the goodwill that Bush is remembered for wasting.

And unseemly displays of glee at killing waste just a little bit more of what's left, at least in some minds out here.

[leftynyc]

24. I do remember the Canadians

taking in all our international travelers. I remember quite a few countries helping us out. That's what I remember - not the ones who celebrated the attacks. And I agree about bush - he took all that goodwill and crapped all over it.

[Swagman]

34. can anyone point me to the proof he did 9/11 ?

[defendandprotect]

37. Exactly--!! And, another "nation" was involved in 9/11, but we've yet to hear which one--!!

if it wasn't so sad, it would be :rofl:

[Snazzy]

12. wow, you speak for New Yorkers

Cool gig.

Allow me to interrupt the delusion. You don't. Sorry.

And just to authenticate: yeah you buddy, get a grip!

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

19. It's too bad Osama's corpse was dumped in the ocean

It would have been way cool to drag that corpse through the streets of New York, so everyone could hit it with their sandals.

Celebrate like it's Mogadishu.

:party:

but nothing changes

[leftynyc]

25. Boy - I hope you're being sarcastic

We wanted him dead but dragged through the streets? No, I don't know anyone here who wanted that. A trial would have been a circus and put the city in further danger and the security would have brought us to a standstill for months. I'm fine with him being fish food.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

29. Semi-sarcastic

Celebrating an assassination is just inappropriate.

Plus, if it was a victory, if it marked the end of the wars, then we'd have reason to celebrate. This is no V-E or V-J day. It's just the start of a change of leadership in Al Qaeda. None of our troops are heading home, we're not dismantling the DHS or TSA.

The celebration is like an over-the-top end-zone dance in the first quarter.

I don't mind that he's fish food. it just doesn't change anything.

[mountainlion55]

30. 100% Agree

:smoke:

[leftynyc]

31. I'm not so sure of that

I'm hoping the President uses this opportunity to drawdown troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. He wont get another opporunity like this one.

[Zhade]

49. He specifically stated the OPPOSITE of what you hope, unfortunately.

This GWOT bullshit is far from over.

[Zhade]

48. So you don't believe in the fundamental right to a fair trial, no matter who the accused is?

Shit, we put NAZIS on trial, but extrajudicial execution is now the gold standard? Pathetic.

[chrisa]

40. I would have preferred more Greek style

Hitch him to the back of a chariot, and ride through the countryside. Yehaw!

No sarcasm. :)

[adigal]

22. I am a NYer; my husband was a NYC fireman

He finds it unseemly and disturbing, that we are like the crazies over there, cheering over death. So do I. It is just, yes, but we are disgusting, cheering over death.

And can we bring the troops home now???

[leftynyc]

26. I think we should bring the troops home

but I thought that before yesterday. I saw a shot at Times Square last night. Many firefighters and cheering. I begrudge the first responders nothing. And blessings to your husband. Every single day the firefighters run into buildings the rest of us are running out of - heroes every single day.

[adigal]

28. Thanks, that is very kind of you

Firefighters are an emotional sort, often, so I imagine many of them would cheer this news. But I still think it is inappropriate. I hate cheering death.

[freedom fighter jh]

27. It was never established, just asserted, that it was OBL that made 9/11 happen.

If he'd been captured and tried, then maybe his role in the whole thing would have become clear. But as it is the basis for celebration is just a government story that is full of holes.

[defendandprotect]

38. I'm willing to let Obama have the credit for this -- but 9/11 was an inside job ...

and Osama Bin Laden was a CIA operative --

[Zhade]

51. Seriously. Besides proving to the world that we actually believe in justice...

...think of the truths we could have discerned from a full trial. Sure, finding an impartial jury would have been tremendously difficult -- but isn't that part of the price you pay to hold true to one's principles?

[johnroshan]

33. Just like the Iraqis and other middle easterners who celebrated

when American forces died. Sometimes its frightening to look into a mirror and see your enemy in yourself.

[freshwest]

54. What I saw live on television that day will be with me forever. People jumping out the windows,

Fleeing from the place they should have been safe. It enraged me.

In the following days I watched, hoping against reason that people would be pulled out of the rubble alive. I really believed that because of my faith in the emergency crews that they would be, and then time and time again, heartbreak.

I can't imagine what it was like to be there in person. I was physically ill for months from just what I watched. I've worked in the construction of high rise buildings and felt a kinship with all the workers there.

Everyone has a right to what they're feeling right now. I can't keep from crying just writing these words. All I want is for this to be the road back to America and moving forward.

[TomCADem]

47. FOX News Refused To Show These Pictures - Right call?

CNN and MSNBC were showing the crowds of people in front of the White House and in New York cheering the news, but not Fox.

[TheLastMohican]

5. A very good question

Simple-minded folks believe that killing this fetish of a name, changes something in the Middle East. Osama has been more of a banner than an inspirational leader in the later years.
Killing him won't stop terrorism automatically. Some people just don't understand.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

18. Al Qaeda's No. 1 is dead. Long live Al Qaeda's No. 1.

I don't know when the next number 1 will surface. Did Osama have a clear and accepted succession plan? Dunno. I'd guess there will be a period of factional competition for the newly-opened position. And then it will be back to the business of holy war.

Terrorism won't end with this death. Neither will the Department of Homeland Security, the TSA, etc. These government structures are our permanent monuments to terrorist victory.

It's just a media feel-good moment, like the green night-vision images of shock and awe. A short period to beat our chests and drink cheap beer.

:hi:

[iwishiwas]

6. I thought of that ealier. Eerie to say the least.

[harmonicon]

7. I'm glad someone else at least partly agrees with me.

I find celebrations of this to be sickening.

[iverglas]

10. so am I ;)

as in: back at you, and the others who have said so.

[fujiyama]

15. There were a few crackpots dancing

I think it was video footage from the West Bank.

But I remember a lot of footage from the Muslim world (and Iran in particular) where people were holding vigils.

I'm sorry but there is no moral equivalence. The people that died on 9/11 were civilians. Bin Laden is a mass murderer. There is no similarity.

[iverglas]

16. there is no similarity?

Actually, there is.

All of the individuals in question were human beings.

It's the one great big similarity on which the whole of human culture and history and society has been constructed and continues to be built.

Personal feelings are one thing. I might rejoice in the death of a particularly horrible individual I know personally, say.

This does not mean that I am entitled to kill the person or that I should expect to do so with impunity. The public rules are different from, and not determined by, personal feelings.

Public displays of glee at a death straddle that line. They are understandable as expressions of each individual's personal feelings, for which they are answerable to no one. But they undermine that fundamental, essential value of human society: the humanity of every individual member of it.

[fujiyama]

21. Nonsense

If Americans were cheering, say an Israeli bomb dropped on a Palestinian marketplace causing the death of thousands of civilians, then yes I could see a similarity and I would feel a sense of absolute revulsion and disgust.

Cheering the death of a mass murdering religious psychopath - not so much. Sorry. By your reasoning every parade that took place following WWII was just as unseemly because they too followed the defeat of the other side (meaning the deaths of many) and in the particular case of the European theater, the death of a particularly vile personality. Some "humans" serve no purpose other than being a cause for death and destruction, and their demise does indeed call for celebration and jubilation.

[iverglas]

23. take your false and intolerable assertions about "my reasoning"

and play with them somewhere that isn't here, 'k?

Your assertions about "some humans" are your own opinions, not revealed truth.

You're welcome to them, I'm sure.

Just stick to stating your own, and not making up opinions to put in my mouth.

[sabrina 1]

57. How do you feel about the one million dead Iraqis?

Do you think that they now have a reason to kill Americans and then dance in the streets each time they succeed? Why did we kill all those people? They had nothing to do with 9/11.

I agree with those who are disturbed by the carnival atmosphere in celebration of the death of OBL. It is, as the first commenter said, 'unseemly'.

If it meant the end of the phony GWOT, then I might join the celebrations, but it will in fact, do the opposite. This dancing in the streets will only provoke more extremists.

[Zhade]

53. Brave post. What many can't, or won't, consider -- ObL was a kid once.

He turned out horrifically, twisted by religion and fueled by a need for vengeance against whomever he saw as the enemy. Kind of like, um, the United States. Fitting, given we created the killer whose death is now celebrated.

I'd rather have had a trial, so we could have the actual facts, all of them -- and to be reminded how someone can turn into what he did (I don't believe in the horseshit mysticism of someone being "born evil").

I don't feel sorry for bin Laden the terrorist. But (and I felt this way about b*s* junior many times) I mourn the loss of yet another life to fearful hatred -- the kind that the gravedancers at the WH displayed last night, and the kind that twisted bin Laden into the person he eventually became.

All of that starts when we forget that we're all human.

[adigal]

20. That is exactly what I was thinking

The pictures of cheering Americans remind me of the people in the Muslim world cheering when they harm us.

We are a sick people.

And my husband was disabled by 9/11 and he said it makes no difference to him. He hates killing anyone.

[sinkingfeeling]

35. I agree. Assassination makes us exceptional?

[treestar]

39. The difference being they were innocent victims

and this is the perpetrator.

[iverglas]

43. the actual difference being

a pure matter of perspective, in some cases.

Surely no one here would assert that all USAmericans attacked in the course of this ongoing conflict were innocent and were not perpetrators.

(Oh ... I was, I had hoped obviously but I do realize now that is not the case, not referring solely to, or actually thinking at all about, the victims in the World Trade Towers. I thought I was thinking of some other incident, maybe the attack on the US Embassy? Something more rationally connected to this situation. Anyway, my fault entirely for the misunderstanding, and yes, I agree that if the Sept 11 event is the point of comparison, it's a rather bad one.)

[LynnTheDem]

42. Yes it does remind me. "But it's ok when we do it."

Except that it isn't.

[aikoaiko]

44. Is there not a difference between cheering the deaths of nameless faceless people and cheering the

death of a specific man wanted for the deaths of thousands?

:shrug:

[iverglas]

46. please see post 43

I dunno. Cheering the killing of anyone is really the question, though.

Like I said, I've cheered deaths. Pahlavi, Franco, Falwell. Had the first two been killed while in power, I might have cheered. Collective self-defence and self-determination and all. Had Falwell been killed, I think I would have found it unseemly to cheer publicly.

Cheering killings has a kind of legitimizing effect that can too easily be generalized, don't you think?

[TheLastMohican]

17. Are these guys going to jump with joy

that also three Gaddafi grandchildren are dead?

[pinniped]

32. I'll check my morning paper to see if they're going with a V-OBL headline.

:eyes:

[jakeXT]

36. Ok and now let's shift gears and supply some weapons for AQ in Libya

[chrisa]

41. Good, but its just too bad Osama wasn't swinging in front of the White House.

:evilgrin:

[Hotler]

45. When are Americans going to take to the streets demanding...

justice be served to the Wall St. bankers????

[fascisthunter]

50. well, can you blame Americans

it's not as if they have anything else to cheer besides their favorite sports teams.

[Zhade]

56. I'm thining the CIA wins the pennant this year. But the NSA is a dark horse.

/jest

[fascisthunter]

58. well played

[smirkymonkey]

55. It will never be over.

[krabigirl]

59. I won't be cheering until the wars are ended and our troops are home with their familes.

oh, and our freedoms are restored. none of these things will happen, of course.