(PICTURE: HCMC newspaper the morning after OBL was killed.)
I know the whole world has been waiting with bated breath for Ahoy Hanoi's take on the recent killing of Bin Laden so here it is:
Regarding celebrations: When I saw the news the other night, I basically jumped out of my chair. I wished there were some Americans around so I could slap someone five. When I watched the news though I started getting mixed feelings about how people were celebrating. I loved all of the patriotic stuff of people coming together, singing "God Bless America", etc. Those things were awesome. However, the news was also showing some people who seemed to be using OBL's death as just a reason to party. There was one college jackass on TV who said, "I've got two finals tomorrow but I don't care. We got Osama!". The thing is, I'm 99% sure that anyone who lost a loved one on 9/11 wasn't out getting hammered.
The other thing that put me at unease was everyone who was saying "We won!". I'm sorry, but we didn't win anything. We got justice and for that I applaud and feel proud. However, there's sadly no winning the war against terrorism as this is something that we are going to have to deal with probably all of our lifetimes.
(PICTURE: The fake death picture printed in the newspaper. The caption says "OBL dead and OBL alive." )
Regarding not releasing the photo: I 100% agree with Obama's decision today. Yesterday it seemed as if the White House was gonna release the photo and it sort of upset me. Frankly, what's the point? You see, here in Vietnam, OBL's death photo is all over the cover of every newspaper. Yes of course it is the fake one but people here don't know that -- at least the one's who I asked. Huyen was reading the newspaper and I had to say to her that the photo was fake. She sort of just shrugged her shoulders because she still knew BIN LADEN IS DEAD which is the main point. Do we really need a photo to prove that? I just think there's a lot more negatives than positives to releasing the photo. But heck, based on polls I know I'm in the minority on this.
Other thoughts:
1. I pray that the information the SEALS took with them leads us to find/capture/kill every single terrorist prick who ever associated with OBL.
2. Thank goodness the SEALS killed OBL. It would have been a nightmare to see OBL put on trial where he could spew his poisonous ideology in front a worldwide audience.
3. How fucking cool are the SEALS? I'm pretty sure every man in the United States had a moment yesterday where they questioned their life choices. Personally, I've been thinking for two days now how I made some wrong choices to not end up a Navy Seal...but then I read about some of the stuff they have to do to become a SEAL and I'm 100% sure I would have dropped out in the first week because I'm not tough enough.
4. Is it just me, or is anyone else imagining any Iraqi people who were scratching their heads yesterday saying, "Okay, uh, so when do we get to kill the man whose ideology caused tens of thousands of our people to be killed?" Bush, like Osama, gets to sit pretty in his million dollar home while other people go to the battlefield and do his dirty work. Maybe it's because I've been living out of the country since Bush's term but I still consider him and his lackeys war criminals. These guys lied to cause us to go to war in Iraq where not only tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed but more Americans have died there than were killed on 9/11.
Final thought:
I applaud all of the people who worked tirelessly to get Osama Bin Laden. It was a long process but we never gave up and justice was served. However, there's still a lot of work to be done to make sure that another 9/11 never happens again.
