Call me contrary but I really cannot be happy about Osama bin Laden’s death.  I may be relieved that the long drawn out manhunt for this belligerent has finally ended in his death, but his death, the manner of his death, is not a cause for jubilation for me.  Before you get angry, please note my reasons:

1. I cannot say that his death is already an established fact.  President Obama said that a special force of US Navy Seals had carried out a daring raid on a compound where Osama bin Laden has been hiding but the fact of his death is still not an established fact because there is no proof;
2. All I have to go on are statements that Osama bin Laden is dead.  I have not seen the body, I have not seen pictures of his corpse.  No autopsy was done that has been disclosed.  His body was buried at sea, there is no way for me to know that Osama bin Laden is truly dead. He who alleged that Osama bin Laden is dead has the burden of proving the death by evidence that a reasonable mind can accept;
3. What keeps me from rejoicing over the alleged death of Osama bin Laden is that there is no assurance that with his death, terrorism will also abate.  Osama is just one person in a big terrorist network that spans the globe whose members are anonymous.  The death of the leader may weaken the terrorist group Al Quaeda, but then again, his death may challenge the group to even more terrorism.  Osama’s death may not accomplish much in preventing future terrorist attacks.
4. What is sadder to me is that in pursuing Osama’s capture, the United States has stooped to Osama’s level.  Osama admitted to having masterminded the 9/11 attacks. Osama bin Laden admitted that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated in order to mete out justice to the US government.  Osama declared a personal war against the United States government and executed civilians who had nothing to do with the US government’s policy.  Osama bin Laden took the law into his own hands.  He prosecuted the US, he tried the US in the courtroom in his mind and he executed the sentence he himself gave.  But did not the US do the same when it sent the Navy Seals to liquidate Osama bin Laden?  Did not the US take the law into its own hands?  Did it not just round up a posse and simply lynched Osama bin Laden?
5. Osama should have been arrested and captured.  He should have been brought to trial because this is what civilized people who have committed themselves to upholding the rule of law do.  They don’t just go inside someone else’s backyard and shoot the neighbor’s barking/biting dog.  Instead, they go to the police, they file a complaint, the dog is captured and if found to have bitten anyone, the dog should then be put to sleep;
6. What the US did was go into Pakistan’s backyard, shoot Osama bin Laden and then, the US had the nerve to say, there, we killed him for you because you Pakistanis are either coddling him or you are too incompetent to catch him yourself.  Talk about insult added to injury and salt rubbed on wounds.
7. Osama may have admitted having masterminded the attacks, but that does not mean that he did not deserve his day in court.  This is what due process means.  It means that a person, even if he is guilty, will not be summarily shot to death without his guilt being proven;
8. The richest, most powerful nation on the earth cannot just be allowed to send a highly-trained military team to liquidate its perceived enemies;
9. The richest, most powerful nation on the earth cannot just be allowed to bring a highly-trained military team into the sovereign territory of another country and just liquidate or assassinate persons who happen to be living in that country;
10. But why is not this surprising?  America has done it before.  Remember Norberto Noriega?  The United States just went in, snatched him and when he “resisted” he was also shot to death. Norberto Noriega was just in the US’s  backyard. Talk about an escalating pattern of violence.
11. If the US military had done this thing on US soil against an American citizen, there would be cries of violations of human rights, but because the US military had done this in a third-world country, so far from their shores, and the man killed was not a US citizen, it is all justified and everyone is happy and celebrating.  In another part of the world, this is a brazen show of arrogance,Whatever happened to the adage: be magnanimous in victory?”;
12. Will this stop terrorism?  It just reinforces the view that the US is a bully.  This is the perception of those who have come up against US might and have been crushed as a result. Osama bin Laden’s death is proof that might makes right.
13. How can we be so sure that this raid/ assassination/ liquidation is not just a bid to raise US President Barak Obama’s ratings because he plans to run again for a second term? How can we be sure that this was not done simply to shift people’s attention from the poor economy?

These and many more are questions issues and considerations that keep me from celebrating the alleged death of Osama bin Laden.  I think that Osama bin Laden is a terrorist.  I think that the violence he masterminded is despicable.  I think that he deserves the stiffest penalty our justice system can mete out. I just cannot dance on Osama’s grave. I just won’t dance on his grave is all.  His death is a sad thing.  Not because Osama didn’t deserve to die a similar violent death that he dished out to others. It is sad because in giving him the death he so richly deserved, we may have also shot ourselves. The casualty is the rule of law.  The end does not justify the means. This is sad only.

The Holy God himself who deals out perfect justice because He knows all has declared that he finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked.  I don’t think we flawed humans should find pleasure in the death of Osama bin Laden either.  This is sad only.