Bin Laden
I was woken up this morning by a phone call from the BBC. They told me Bin Laden had been killed and as my dad had been a victim of the 9-11 attacks on New York, how did the news make me feel.
I came down stairs and looked at the news. Crowds outside the White House and down on Ground Zero, chanting and cheering. Then I read something on the New York Times website. A survivor, Harry Waizer, said, “I just can’t find it in me to be glad one more person is dead, even if it is Osama Bin Laden.”
I’m glad I’m not alone in feeling like that. I’ve been asked if I feel great, if there’s now a sense of closure, if I feel that the war on terror is nearly over.
No.
And how short sighted to think any of those things.
Firstly, the dead are dead. Bin Laden’s death doesn’t ‘pay-back’ or settle the score. My dad won’t be coming back. Bin Laden lived a twisted life and he wont get the chance to see the wrong in it.
Justice? Maybe, but justice isn’t always a healer. I’ll find closure when we start seeing radical islamic extremists and their adversaries laying down their arms, when the barriers between the east and west are pulled down.
And no, this brings us no nearer to the end of the War on Terror. Bin Ladens ideals are not his ideals alone. They’re the ideals of many extremist groups and individuals. His death will stir the hearts of those sympathetic to his cause to revenge, retaliation and a determination to fight for what they believe to be right.
And us? We’ll hit back, harder. The deadly game of ping-pong will continue. As Ghandi said, an eye for and eye makes the world go blind.
There’s hope though. We can be bigger than retaliation, revenge, payback. The winner is the one who gets the result. The best result is reconciliation. God doesn’t need us to take up guns. He’s bigger than that. Love is stronger.
