The Second Best Mayday in History

May 1, 1945 was better. In any case, I received the news of Osama's death late, being in Germany. The time difference is six hours. When I did, it was not through NBC or CNN (and it sure as hell wasn't through FOX); it was through Facebook.

Joyful statuses about the event were the majority of my News Feed, and why not? It's kind of a big deal. Amid these, however, were, and are, statuses condemning celebrations of Osama's death, calling it unjust or uncalled for.

I feel like I should agree. I don't. Say what you want about death being a terrible thing. Some people deserve it.

I could understand if we were speaking of executing Osama. But what people seem to forget is that he wasn't unarmed and surrendering when he got his 5.56 x 45 millimeter reward. The only reason he didn't add more lives to his 3,000 plus headcount was because he wasn't a good enough shot.

And exactly what part of being happy that this man will never kill again am I supposed to regret? He got a better deal than some of his victims that's for damn sure. If it were up to me, yes, I would have captured him, but hey, either way works and honestly, I don't really care. I'm against the death penalty. I'm anti-abortion. But I also believe in self-defense. If someone shoots at you, especially someone who is known to be responsible for the deaths of many others, you have every right to pull that trigger.

But all of that is beside the point. The question doesn't even seem to be whether or not it was right to kill Osama, but whether or not it's right to be happy about it. It seems to me that not only is the first question far more important, but also that people seem to be completely unaware of the context in which these events occurred.

Let's get one thing straight. Osama bin Laden targeted and killed civilians. It didn't matter that they might not have agreed with America's policy on bases in the Middle East, it didn't matter that they had nothing to do with the grievances Osama had against the US. He killed them anyway, because that's how his organization operates. Logically, and morally, if you want a foreign invader out of your country, you target his troops or installations. Even his government. But civilians? Individuals whose opinions on and involvement in the matter you don't even know? Whose work isn't even related to the people causing you harm? Osama's actions were no better than those of the Japanese at Nanking, or the Americans who bombed Dresden. It was purposeless wanton destruction of human life and it was wrong.

Am I supposed to now not be happy that this man will never kill again? That the pointless, stupid war we've been fighting without success at least accomplished something? It doesn't make the war right, worthwhile or smart, but even though we should condemn the tragic error that is the War on Terror, there is nothing wrong with our joy that a murderer has been stopped permanently.

The sanctimonious defenders of bin Laden's dignity lack perspective. They say killing is wrong, without stopping to consider whether there are circumstances where this might not be true. Certainly murder is wrong. Killing someone in cold blood when you know they can't hurt anyone anymore is wrong and evil. Killing someone to protect yourself and others from someone who is attacking you is not. They say that it is wrong to feel joy at someone's death, without stopping to consider what that death actually means. To arbitrarily celebrate someone's death, is depraved and neurotic. To celebrate the fact that a man who murders and destroys has been stopped is natural.

We should be tolerant of many things, but evil is not one of them. He who uses evil as a weapon should not be surprised to find that it has rebounded on him, and finding joy in the prevention of evil does not make he who experiences that joy himself evil. Osama bin Laden was a murderer whose methods brought nothing but pain and destruction. May he rest where he belongs, and may his bones be eaten by the fishes.