Long Awaited Justice

So we've accomplished a great goal that we have had for years, which is eliminating Usama
Bin Laden! I will start out by saying that as a Christian, I have mixed feelings as to what my reaction should be. On one hand, as an American, I am glad to see that so many who have suffered for almost a decade are finally able to receive some type of closure. These people knew that their loved ones were killed by the embodiment of evil, and we couldn't seem to avenge those deaths, and now we can say that we have. On the other hand, as a Christian, I can look at this in one of two ways. I can either read Jesus' words, which are to love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me, or I can read David's words in many occurrences in Psalms, asking God for justice and to destroy his enemies. Consistent with this in the New Testament are Paul's words in 1 Thess. 2:16, which talks about God's wrath being poured on those who killed Jesus "at last". This verse seems to point to the relief that justice has been served. Now I believe that it is possible for both viewpoints to be held by the same person.

Will I celebrate the fact that an unbeliever will be condemned and will not enter the kingdom? Of course not! Peter tells us that God wants all to come to repentance. Will I be upset that someone who has caused so much pain and suffering is gone? Of course not! The Bible says that God demands justice. So what will I do? I will rejoice for those who finally have received some consolation, knowing that the man who killed their loved ones can no longer taunt them, and they can know that this man can never harm another human being. I can also pray for Muslim extremists, who sympathize with Bin Laden, and hope that they will come to the Lord without harming any other innocent people. So yes, the bible is consistent in this and shows both sides, despite what atheists and agnostics would have you believe.

Now that the most important aspect of the issue has been addressed, what about the "politics" of the whole situation? First of all, I am far from a fan of Obama. I think he is a socialist and yes, I'm one of those "extremists" that questions his past, and have wondered whether or not he was born in this country. The truth is, that I haven't seen whether or not he has given any credit to the Bush administration. In the last two years, all I have seen is that he has blamed the previous administration for the problems that he promised to fix. He has taken credit for a lot of this situation, much of which is warranted. However, he also voted against this very war that we're in, and had it not been for the Bush , we wouldn't have been in a position to capture or kill Bin Laden to begin with. I have also heard and read reports that the reason that we received the intelligence that we did is from so called "enhanced interrogation" tactics, AKA torture. It has been a widespread belief on the left that torture doesn't work, and that it only leads to false information. If it is proven that torture led us to Bin Laden, then the opposite stance on torture will be proven wrong. Obama would obviously denounce these methods of interrogation, but will gladly take the credit for finding Bin Laden, but will deny that such tactics led us to him. The same goes for Guantanamo Bay. One of Obama's biggest campaign promises was to shut it down, yet had we done that, we wouldn't have been given the information that gave us Bin Laden.

Even though I see that he is not fully responsible for the events, I must give him credit because he certainly had a part in it. He made some pretty difficult calls, and did what was necessary, which was keeping it from the American people, as it had to be a covert operation. His administration made some great moves, and he made the right choices. He acted with great decisiveness, he was presidential, and that is to be congratulated. I also agree with the decision to dispose of Bin Laden's body at sea. The only reason that we have common ground on this issue is so that other Muslim extremists don't have a burial site to commemorate, or to set as a memorial site. The man didn't deserve those things, and so I believe that it was a good choice by dropping his body in the ocean where no one can find him. As far as those who are holding conspiracy theories saying that Obama wanted to publicize the death of the most wanted man alive for political purposes, I must disagree. At this point, we have no evidence that points to that, and I will trust that Bin Laden is dead until I have reason to believe otherwise. There are many things about this president that cause me not to trust him, but in this particular instance, I have no reason to doubt what we're being told.

I will say that I am very impressed with the fact that as a nation, we are all in agreement in our relief that the families of the 9/11 victims are finally able to breathe. I did not see it live, but watched a recording of the Phillies vs. Met game, and the events that occurred that night at the game amazed me. If you are unaware, during the game, many people received news updates on their phones and saw that the world's most wanted man had been killed. They proceeded to show others around them, and it got to the point where most of the fans knew what had happened. The entire crowd began chanting "USA" in pride as we had finally avenged the deaths of so many people nearly a decade later. Thousands gathered at Ground Zero, the White House, and many other places in public, singing the National Anthem, and stating the Pledge of Allegiance in unison. We agree on the fact that our troops keep us safe, and that it is their sacrifice that make these things possible. This is the America that I love. We disagree on too many other issues, and they certainly have their places, and those debates must not stop. However, on this occasion, let's just all agree that this was a great day for our country, and postpone those debates for a later time.