For some reason, this evening this video popped on my YouTube sidebar. It is a video that documents the evolution of a news story. That story? The death of Osama bin Laden in 2011. Or should I say the murder of the man? Yes, because that’s what it was and we all know it.
I get it. He was a bad guy. But here’s the thing: our fellow countrymen stalked him, raided his home and blew his head off, and why? Retaliation, plain and simple. We live in a nation of laws and on that day, those laws were ignored with the blessings of then President Obama.
Was bin Laden captured and given a fair trial? No. Was he given representation? No. His basic, fundamental rights, rights that many soldiers have died defending, were ignored, and they were ignored with malice and a disgusting desire for petty revenge. We don’t know for sure if he gave the orders. We don’t know anything for sure. He was never given a chance to speak for himself, never a chance for a trial.
So, yes, Osama bin Laden was indeed murdered and the sad part is that the most powerful man in the world approved the plan. In my opinion, Obama should have been put on trial for war crimes. There was no valid reason to kill the man, especially with no actual proof that bin Laden actually played a role in the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.
As I wrote on the 10th, the people who died on September 11, 2001 pretty much asked for it. Who in their right minds works 100 stories up in a building that had already been attacked? Of course no one could have predicted that planes would fly into those buildings, but what about common sense?
Common sense would dictate to anyone with a brain that working so high up would cause problems in the event of a fire or other emergency. I certainly wouldn’t have trusted elevators that high up. And what happened? Those elevators were destroyed, leaving people to die a fiery death. That wouldn’t have happened five stories up. There would have been other ways out in that scenario.
But I’ve already gone over that.
No, 9/11 had no victims, not to me anyway. The people who died in those buildings were asking for it. Man wasn’t intended to fly or else he would have given us wings, so the people in the planes brought it upon themselves. So seeking out bin Laden for revenge was unjustified. Fine, capture him, but then give him a trial in an international court.
After a fair trial, and if a verdict demands it, then sentence him to the rest of his life in prison. He did not deserve the death penalty. Murdering him was not and is not okay. It should not be who we are as a nation.
In that video, you hear the crowd shouting, “USA! USA!” That’s disgusting. They were just like animals, celebrating the death of a man who didn’t deserve it. Charlie Kirk deserved it. Osama bin Laden did not. There is no defending what we did to him. We denied him due process and we denied him humane treatment.
In my opinion, the members of the SEAL time who contributed to bin Laden’s death should, along with Obama, face trial for war crimes with the death penalty being the well-deserved penalty. That will never happen, of course, because our nation officially declared war, which is likely why they slaughtered the man. But that doesn’t make it right.
I was watching the news that night, and I remember the chanting. It disgusted me then and it disgusts me now. On that day in 2011, we forgot who we are as a nation or rather, what we should be. Let us never let that happen again. After all, we are exhorted to forgive our enemies. I don’t really think bin Laden was an actual enemy, but if he played a role in the events of 9/11, then we should have forgiven him, not executed him.