Madam, – As a Christian, when I reflect on the killing of Osama bin Laden, I ask if that is what Jesus would have done, or if He would be so positively elated about one human being slaughtering another? It seems to me that jubilation over revenge and human destruction is participation in the spirit of evil and can never be Christ-like nor glorify the “Father of all”.
Make no mistake, this action on the eight anniversary of George Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech signals a clear intention to vindicate all the decisions of the past decade and continue on a similar course.
The death of a single individual is essentially being heralded as a justification for the deaths of at least hundreds of thousands (a figure largely comprised of civilians) in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. It somehow remedies all illegal activity by the Bush and Obama people and all moral turpitude attendant to the use of “enhanced interrogations”, “extraordinary renditions”, killing civilians by the hundreds of thousands and destroying life for millions of men, women and children who did nothing to the US or its people.
It seems to me that there is an orchestration of events to ratify emotionally the trillions of dollars spent on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It tries to retroactively validate the open-ended waging of global warfare on anyone or any group that it chooses to pin the label “terrorist” on.
To rejoice in the death of Osama bin Laden is to acquiesce to calling wickedness good. As a Christian, it seems to me that we are called to pray for all the dead and to “hope against hope” that peace will come. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In a recent interview on BBC’s Sunday Sequence programme, Mary Robinson expressed unease at the killing of Osama bin Laden. I am sure that the fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of the 9/11 dead and all the worldwide victims of this man would not be sympathetic with her views. If bin Laden had been arrested and brought to trial, how many kidnappings and murders would have occurred to secure his release?
All I can say to Mrs Robinson is, when you corner a mad dog, you shoot it. You don’t ask it to put its hands up and surrender. – Yours, etc,