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For decades, we have held in contempt those who actively celebrate death. When we’ve seen video footage of foreigners cheering terrorist attacks against America, we have ignored their insistence that they are celebrating merely because we have occupied their nations and killed their people. Instead, we have been rightly disgusted -- not only because they are lauding the death of our innocents, but because, more fundamentally, they are celebrating death itself. That latter part had been anathema to a nation built on the presumption that life is an "unalienable right."
But in the years since 9/11, we have begun vaguely mimicking those we say we despise, sometimes celebrating bloodshed against those we see as Bad Guys just as vigorously as our enemies celebrate bloodshed against innocent Americans they (wrongly) deem as Bad Guys. Indeed, an America that once carefully refrained from flaunting gruesome pictures of our victims for fear of engaging in ugly death euphoria now ogles pictures of Uday and Qusay’s corpses, rejoices over images of Saddam Hussein’s hanging and throws a party at news that bin Laden was shot in the head. Read more at salon.com.
Killing of Bin Laden: What Are the Consequences?
By Glenn Greenwald
...I'd have strongly preferred that Osama bin Laden be captured rather than killed so that he could be tried for his crimes and punished in accordance with due process (and to obtain presumably ample intelligence). But if he in fact used force to resist capture, then the U.S. military was entitled to use force against him, the way American police routinely do against suspects who use violence to resist capture. But those are legalities and they will be ignored even more so than usual. The 9/11 attack was a heinous and wanton slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians, and it's understandable that people are reacting with glee over the death of the person responsible for it. I personally don't derive joy or an impulse to chant boastfully at the news that someone just got two bullets put in their skull -- no matter who that someone is -- but that reaction is inevitable: it's the classic case of raucously cheering in a movie theater when the dastardly villain finally gets his due. Read more at salon.com.
Celebrating Bin Laden's Killing: It's Complicated
By Petula Dvorak
A generation of young Americans slammed the door Monday on the great big boogeyman of their childhoods with an epic woot-woot and rounds and rounds of “U.S.A.!”
At the news of Osama bin Laden’s death, thousands of people — most of them college-age and in requisite flip-floppy collegiate gear — whipped up a raucous celebration right outside the White House gates that was one part Mardi Gras and two parts Bon Jovi concert.
There were cigars, a few beers, a lacrosse-stick-turned-flagpole waved by a kid who just climbed a statue, joining others aloft in trees and atop lampposts. Well past midnight, cars zipped up and down the streets of downtown Washington with women standing up through sunroofs waving ginormous American flags and guys blowing vuvuzelas, spring break style.
It felt a little crazy, a bit much. Almost vulgar. Read more at washingtonpost.com.

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/culture/2011/05/03/liberals-sickened-usa-usa-chants#ixzz1opQriRjh

Tripoli, Sunday. A Nato air strike killed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ‘s youngest son and three grandchildren, a spokesman said today, after rebels and Nato dismissed an offer for talks to end the crisis.

The house of Seif al-Arab Gaddafi, 29 (pictured), “was attacked tonight with full power,” government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told a news conference announcing the deaths in the Saturday evening strikes.

The Libyan strongman and his wife were in the building that was hit, but were not harmed, Ibrahim said, though others present were killed or wounded in what he deemed “a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country.”
“The leader himself is in good health; he wasn’t harmed. His wife is also in good health; she wasn’t harmed, (but) other people were injured,” he added.

Ibrahim later said intelligence on Gaddafi’s whereabouts appeared to have been “leaked.”
“They knew about him being there, or expected him for some reason,” the spokesman said.

Nato said it had staged airstrikes in Tripoli but did not confirm the Libyan claims. There was no immediate confirmation of the deaths either. At least three missiles had been heard exploding loudly over the capital earlier as jets flew overhead.

The transatlantic military alliance “continued its precision strikes against Gaddafi  regime military installations in Tripoli overnight, including striking a known command and control building in the Bab al-Azizya neighbourhood shortly after 1800 GMT yesterday evening,” a statement said.

Automatic gunfire, apparently in mourning, echoed across the capital following the announcement, while state TV showed flag-waving demonstrators whom it said turned out to mourn Seif al-Arab’s death.

Overjoyed rebels fired rockets, Kalashnikovs, TNT and 12.5 anti-aircraft machine guns for more than a half an hour, rocking the rebel capital of Benghazi with sustained gunfire and explosions to mark the moment.

“They are so happy that Gaddafi lost his son in an air strike that they are shooting in celebration,” said Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, military spokesman of the Libyan opposition Transitional National Council (TNC) headquartered in the eastern city.
Cars whizzed by the seafront beeping their horns as people shouted “God is greatest” below a night sky lit up by red tracer fire.

Ibrahim had earlier taken journalists to the remnants of a heavily damaged house in Tripoli, hinting but not explicitly indicating this was the one in which Gaddafi ‘s son had died.

Long, twisted rods of reinforcing steel bars stuck out of large chunks of blasted concrete lay in and around the structure. In some areas, the roof had caved in completely and walls had collapsed. A thick layer of dark grey dust covered the grounds.

Given the level of destruction, it was unclear that anyone could have survived, raising the possibility that if Gaddafi  was there, he had left beforehand.Nato vowed to stage more strikes, though the commander of Nato’s Operation Unified Protector stressed that “we do not target individuals.”

“All Nato’s targets are military in nature and have been clearly linked to the... regime’s systematic attacks on the Libyan population and populated areas,” added Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard.
In a speech on state television yesterday, Gaddafi had said Nato “must abandon all hope of his departure.”
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