Well, it’s been a “quick minute” but I am back with another post. Just a few thoughts about the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden: I was very surprised to hear the news. My initial reaction was a feeling of “mission accomplished” and it’s about time, combined with a feeling of uncertainty about possible extremist backlash. While I personally wish that he could have been captured without being killed, I understand that there may have been no way to do the former without doing the latter and so I believe that it was perfectly justified.

What has been disturbing to me is all the rejoicing and celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden. Unfortunately, there’s no way to celebrate his capture alone because it is inseparable from his death… any celebration would be a celebration of his death. There are not a few people who rejoice and boast in his being shot dead. These individuals are some of the same people who try to justify extreme forms of torture because they believe that Osama whereabouts were discovered during the interrogation of terrorists using methods of torture. Anyway, rejoicing for the death of a mass murderer is wrong, even though he killed so many people…  It is unchristian as the statement from the Vatican attests. And now, people want to see photos of Osama’s corpse and flaunt them like a trophy in the face of the terrorists. Wouldn’t that be something inspired by terrorists? They’re the ones who post execution videos as bragging rights. The United States is greater then the terrorists because of how they treated the body of an enemy with dignity.

Printing and releasing photos of the execution of bin Laden could very well incite more terrorism. Already, there have been unspecified threats of retaliation against the United States. There is really no need of releasing photographs because the man is dead and at the bottom of the ocean;  if he were not dead then Al Qaeda would have produced a video by now showing him to be alive and aware of the deception. We should not speak much more about but instead work toward peace while memorizing the lives that he snuffed out. Let’s continue to pray for peace. Blessed Pope John Paul the Great, pray for us!