Assassination of bin Laden was act of vengeance

Dictionary.com defines “justice” as “the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness,” or “The moral principle determining just conduct.” The same source explains “vengeance” as “infliction of injury, harm, or humiliation on a person by another who has been harmed by that person; violent revenge.”

The two words have distinctly different meanings, yet recent events give the impression many Americans think the terms are synonymous. President Barack Obama’s speech after Osama bin Laden’s carefully planned demise proclaiming that “justice had been done” for the victims of the attacks arranged by bin Laden on Sept. 11, 2001 merely furthered this apparent confusion.

The spontaneous revelry and chest-thumping, which many American practitioners of Christianity, Judaism, or Islam took part in after United States Navy SEALS dispatched the world’s most notorious terrorist earlier this month was at best troubling and at worst chilling.

Few would argue the world was diminished by the termination of the world’s most unrepentant hate-monger. But seeing sizable numbers of young Americans fervently waving the Stars and Stripes while chanting “U-S-A, U-S-A” in the impromptu celebrations that erupted after word broke that bin Laden had been slain can’t have played well in certain countries. Even neutral nations which, while not being reliable American allies, are at least not dedicated to the violent overthrow of Western Civilization, must have been taken aback by this behavior.

Some argue anti-U.S. sentiments in many nations (particularly Islamic ones) are already a given. But open-minded people around the world were no less appalled by footage of flag-waving, chanting Americans celebrating bin Laden’s death than most U.S. residents would be if they viewed spontaneous demonstrations following the slaying(s) of American military personnel in a far-off nation where the signs in the background were printed in Arabic and the chanters bearing them were swarthy turban-wearers.

Make no mistake: The media in other nations is every bit as biased and manipulative as America’s is, and on top of that is often government-controlled. Producing video evidence confirming America is peopled by wild-eyed fanatics bent on world domination is child’s play for propagandists in charge of producing television “news” in certain countries, particularly if the audience is already predisposed to see the United States in an unflattering light.

Unrestrained and unexamined national enthusiasm ”“ particularly when connected with patriotism, religion, or politics ”“ is rarely productive; it blinds people of all faiths, nationalities and ethnicities equally.

Public displays of joy over barbarism weren’t the only sad byproduct of bin Laden’s death. Spokespeople for both of America’s major political parties stepped up their political rhetoric in the hours and days after the death of al-Qaida’s spiritual leader, with each trying to surreptitiously engage in political opportunism while simultaneously accusing the other of openly doing so.

Republican revisionist history specialists took a shot at crediting the rub-out to the policies of the previous administration, while Democrats tried to score political points as well, though no more so than the GOP attempted to do following the capture of Saddam Hussein in December 2003.

But while critics on the right dismissed the current commander-in-chief’s trip to the former site of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan just days after bin Laden’s death as a mere photo op, the president’s team took a deliberately understated approach, one in sharp contrast to that of his predecessor. The decision to not have Obama speak during his brief appearance at Ground Zero was a sign his handlers learned from the mistakes of George W. Bush’s advisors, who on May 1, 2003 decided it would be a good idea to send their strutting, preening, flight-jacketed boss onto the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln with a “Mission Accomplished” banner as the backdrop to announce that major combat operations in Iraq were over. History shows the statements the 43rd president made that day were nearly as spectacularly inaccurate as their presentation was transparently choreographed.

Some of those giddy over the government-sponsored execution of bin Laden quickly dismissed the assertions of certain Middle Eastern leaders who condemned the mission as an “assassination.” But to assassinate is to secretively and/or suddenly kill a prominent individual premeditatedly or treacherously. And regardless of whether the depraved exterminator of thousands of innocents had it coming, that was precisely what the United States Navy SEALS did to bin Laden. Rationalizing his killing “because he deserved it” is no less a perversion of decent and moral behavior than al-Qaida adherents claiming all of their leader’s actions were justifiable because he was a holy warrior battling the Great Satan.

Finding definitions for words like “justice,” “vengeance,” and “assassinate” in the dictionary is easy.

But after publicly celebrating our national bloodlust and in doing so tacitly conceding two wrongs apparently do make a right, honestly defining how and why America is entitled to continue claiming the moral high ground is significantly more difficult.

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