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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to think that is was quite distateful

194 replies

ModreB · 03/05/2011 19:01

For Obama and effectively the rest of the US Govt to watch live coverage of Bin Laden being shot dead?

At least Hilary Clinton looked pretty horrified here

OP posts:

Mamaz0n · 03/05/2011 21:33

SHIT!

I think i am on a thread agreeing with Xenia.

someone look out the window and see if the earth has stopped turning.

thisisyesterday · 03/05/2011 21:34

wll they managed to try those involved with the second world war, at nuremburg
i find it pretty hard to believe that they couldn't try one guy in the 21st century

ilovesprouts · 03/05/2011 21:35

he died like a coward hiding behind his wife ,good riddence

FannyNil · 03/05/2011 21:35

Those who give the orders (Obama for e.g.) or who operate remotely the weapons under orders (the "drivers" of drones for e.g.) should not be insulated from the results of those decisions or acts. In this case only the team that entered the villa and killed bin Laden and others could have direct experience. Viewing a video of the event is as close as Obama and Clinton can get to that experience. Not comfortable viewing (as Clinton's reaction made evident) but entirely appropriate that they should see it. IMO watching it live would make the images have a greater impact. Giving an order to one human being to kill another is, after all, the most serious decision it is possible to make.

CheerfulYank · 03/05/2011 21:35

The American preachers who protest at military funerals (the Westboro Baptist Church) are also mentally ill bastards as far as I'm concerned. But they do not kill innocent people , and they do not tell others to do so. (They believe they would go to hell for murder.)

I don't technically agree with the death penalty either, but what would you have them do in this case? Lose however many innocent lives trying to extract him? Let him live to encourage more children to strap bombs to themselves? Let him live to encourage more women be stoned to death for their supposed crimes, or murdered by their own parents in "honor killings"? Let him live so he could mastermind the deaths of how many hundreds of thousands more innocent people?

And I'm sorry, but if Obama ordered the raid and then sat in another room not watching it be carried out, there's no way I'd vote for him next year. If you're going to make a decision like that you can damn well look into the face of it and see it done.

As I said before, if any of the assassination attempts on Hitler had worked, would you be here whining that he didn't get a fair trial, or would you be glad that he did not live to mastermind the murder of more innocent people?

Also, I find it a bit rich that whenever WW2 is brought up, it's said that the US didn't step in until much later, and then in the same breath we're called war mongerers. Which is it, please?

There were children on the planes on 9/11. Little children. And the hijackers, on this man's orders, looked at them and did what they did anyway. So no, I don't think that this picture is "quite distasteful" , not a bit of it.

thisisyesterday · 03/05/2011 21:36

well said xenia

CheerfulYank · 03/05/2011 21:36

FWIW I do think the street celebrations were in extremely poor taste and I'm ashamed of the Americans who took part in them.

Nancy66 · 03/05/2011 21:38

he didn't use his wife as a shield - that's been made clear now.

MooMooFarm · 03/05/2011 21:39

But cheerfulYank isn't that just the point? Yes there were little children on the planes, we all know that. And the killing of OBL is no guarantee it won't happen again in some form or other. The whole situation from start to this point is about hatred and killing and none of it is cause for celebration IMO.

Hardhatonamission · 03/05/2011 21:40

cheerfulyank He is not alone in his fanatacism though, you only have to look toward Palestine to see that. Or look closer to home at the 'hate preachers' i know I keep mentioning him but seriously, Anjem Choudary's website is a real eyeopener...

I simply cannot get my head round how people of faith, people claiming to follow peaceful religions, can be gleeful at the deaths of others.

I consider myself to be a peaceful person, i will not ever rejoice at the death of another human being no mater what their actions and find it terrible that so many rational people are so elated by this.

MooMooFarm · 03/05/2011 21:40

CheerfulYank sorry xposted with you - and I was specifically talking about the street celebrations when I referred to it being distasteful.

ginmakesitallok · 03/05/2011 21:43

So do those who think it was right to kill him believe in the death sentence for all murderers? Or is it for people who murder a few folk? How many people do you kill before you lose your human rights?

ginmakesitallok · 03/05/2011 21:43

Oh - but it wasn't even a death sentence because he didn't get a trial - so do you believe in summary execution for all murderers?

CheerfulYank · 03/05/2011 21:44

I do not rejoice in his death at all. I think it's horribly sad that another human could make decisions in his life that made the world safer with him dead.

I was nowhere near the celebrations (I live in Minnesota) but would not have gone if I had.

meditrina · 03/05/2011 21:44

I do not see the need for them to watch it live - I would rather the big political decisions to be made by the one with the strongest mind, not the strongest stomach for watching death, live. And then having their reactions to watching it filmed and broadcast. We are watching their voyeurism.

There were little children in that compound too.

morfamawddach · 03/05/2011 21:45

Well said Dirty. Whoever the victim, murder is wrong.

CheerfulYank · 03/05/2011 21:46

I don't know that I could put a number on it, gin . I don't envy the people (Obama, etc) who have to. But I think knee-jerk reactions either way are dangerous things.

NameChangeMay · 03/05/2011 21:46

I really don't think they should have shot him. He will now be a martyr to his cause. They should have caught him, imprisoned him, and left him to rot alone, for the rest of his life. I think he got off very very easy.

And also, I do not believe that shooting Bin Laden has solved much. In the words of Terry Pratchett ...

"Shoot the dictator and prevent the war? But the dictator is merely the tip of the whole festering boil of social pus from which dictators emerge; shoot him and there'll be another one along in a minute. Shoot him too? Why not just shoot them all and invade Poland?"

Xenia · 03/05/2011 21:47

The powers that be have certainly been going to town over ensuriing the masses go along with the view that suits them and like sheep as ever they do. Nothing like a good war to keep people's minds off home.

As we can't usually change these things there's not much point in thinking about them although we can point out our distaste. If they have killed this person and he were behind any other killings (most terrorists have usually been home grown) I suppose someone might seek to bring to justice those who think their laws (US laws? laws of Pakistan?) allow a killing without a trial. Ptiy we lost the war of US independence.

You will probably also find that views on this topic are to an extent divided on gender lines.

As for the issue of Hitler in those days we tried to respect the rule of law and the Geneva Convention. We held the Nuremburg trials. They were very important. Sadly the world seems to have lost its way a little since then on some issues but I'm sure sense will triumph as the better values usuallly prevail.

("not happy" not "happy" in my post and not sure why it came up twice)

Original poster

ModreB · 03/05/2011 21:48

cheerfullyank - for what it's worth, my DS1, 21 yo, is in the British Army, about to be deployed to the Middle East.

I still think that the reaction to OBL being executed was not appropriate.

I will never rejoice at the death of another human being.

OP posts:

Xenia · 03/05/2011 21:50

It's all a stage managed thing and perhaps also illustrates that the Amercians are just a little behind us in terms of development. Large numbers of them believe the planet is only 6000 years old etc. They will in time move towards our level of development but at the moment they do not show themselves in a very good light. They are being led and don't seem to have the brains to avoid being led. Let us hope was can show some of them a better path on this thread.

CheerfulYank · 03/05/2011 21:51

Nine children between the ages of 2 and 12 were removed from the compound alive after the raid.

If the positions had been reversed and they'd been Western children, that would not be the case.

wannaBe · 03/05/2011 21:52

But you don't have to rejoice in someone's death to believe that it was the right thing to do.

I see no reason for me personally to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden, and as I have said before, I am somewhat uncomfortable about the notion of doing so. But I do not believe there was any other viable outcome, to hold him prisoner for years would have made the world a much more dangerous place, long-term, because there would have been numerous attempts to free him or to gain his freedom by the killing of other, innocent people.

So I believe that it is right that he was killed. That doesn't mean I want to crack open the champagne - I am unaffected by his death really. But an evil man is dead, and really that is no loss to the world.

CheerfulYank · 03/05/2011 21:52

PMSL at Xenia ...you're joking, surely?

CheerfulYank · 03/05/2011 21:53

I do not rejoice in his death either. I've said that about six thousand times in the past few days.

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