One More Time

[howeird]

Let me try this concept one more time, people. How did you feel when you saw videos of Arabs around the world dancing in the streets after 9/11?

That's exactly how yesterday's celebrants looked to me.

Comments

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Very perceptive. Death is not a thing to celebrate. However, the loss of OBL is not one I shall mourn, at all.

[wolfen-dancer.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, and with your last post. I will not mourn his passing, but I also will not throw a party in the streets. Instead I will think on the families that may be getting some sense of closure from his death.

[lironess.livejournal.com]

No celebration over here. I am not entirely sure that what happened will make any difference at all...

Sadly I think that stupid dance has been going on since before we walked upright...sigh.

[didjiman.livejournal.com]

First of all, *I* have never talked about the dancing in the street business, but you know - whatever they want. I will try this again - you talk to the victim's family (if they are dancing on the street) and tell them not to. Oh sure, most people dancing on the street are not families of the victims, but the point, we do not have the right to tell how people should react. We can set examples, but belittle other people reaction is (and telling people "to celebrate other's death is to lower oneself to the other level" is belittling) is the part I have trouble with.

But here's where your argument fail. I felt sad for SOME of the Arabs - that they had some much pent up anger and resentment that they can celebrate the death of thousands of people. Nameless, random people. Osama Bin Laden is not nameless or random. There are small time crooks or even big time crooks. Do not equate simple psychopath who beat people up with a mass murderer.

Lastly, lets get to the celebration part. How is it wrong to celebrate the lifting of a dark cloud, a burden, a darkness in the collective human souls? If someone chooses to do nothing, or lights a candle for his soul, or drinks a glass of champagne to mourn for the victims of 9/11, or drink a toast to his demise, who are you to judge?

No one is lowering to his level. I can guarantee you that no one who was dancing on the street would have chosen to eliminate thousands of people at one swipe.

[howeird]

We have every right to tell people how they should react. As a parent, you know it is from love and compassion that you correct your children when they are doing something wrong. And it is with love and compassion that I suggest to the mobs in New York that what they are doing is wrong.

We are all free to judge. Welcome to America.

9/11: Arabs dance in the streets. May 1: Americans dance in the streets.
What part of this is not stooping to "their level"?

I can guarantee you that no one who was dancing on the street would have chosen to eliminate thousands of people at one swipe.
How soon they forget. Does the phrase "shock and awe" ring a bell? How many thousands of innocent Iraqis were killed in one swipe?

How is it wrong to celebrate the lifting of a dark cloud, a burden, a darkness in the collective human souls?
That's very pretty. Had the Navy Seals used the technology available to them to flood the compound with knockout gas and capture the bad guys alive, there would be nothing wrong with celebrating. But instead they went in with guns blazing, and killed at least one innocent woman they have admitted to.

I understand what you are saying, see your p;oint, and simply do not agree.

[didjiman.livejournal.com]

Lets agree to disagree.

However, I notice something: you disagree with how Obama handle most anything major.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't argue how they should have done the capture or killing because it's really a minor point. But if you think that your scenario is better, I really have nothing more to discuss :-). Because you know what - if they try to capture, and they fail, you will be writing how incompetent they are.

Is there any major Obama policy or action that you agree with, because you know, you can run for President if you think you can do a better job :-)

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen one yet. He's been against Obama since he won the nomination, which is at least consistent. Whether another Democratic president (Clinton, say) would have handled things any differently I don't know.

As I admitted to you, being happy about this, on whatever level, is only human, and that's what we are.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

9-11 killed around 3,000 innocent people.

Our somewhat misguided venture into Iraq has resulted in far more civilian deaths than that - one source has it at oer 100,000, though I don't know exactly how reliable any such count could be.

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

Fighting two (or is it now three) wars simultaneously has been a huge drain on our country. How many lives and how much money have we lost? In lives, almost twice the number who died on 9/11.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/

I have to wonder if our economy would be in such bad shape if we'd been able to maintain peace these past 10 years.

Incidentally, tobacco kills over 400,000 per year in the U.S., and over 40,000 just from secondhand smoke. http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality/

The worst terrorists, I have concluded, are the tobacco companies and those who peddle their products. I would dance in the streets and celebrate if they were all shut down.

I have to agree with you here, Howard. I don't think celebrating the death of anyone, no matter how evil, is appropriate. I see all of this as something of a solemn occasion.

[didjiman.livejournal.com]

Corporate psychopaths who put profits above lives. Evil? You betcha'

Failed foreign policies that have gotten Muslim and other countries to hate us. Bad policies? Yup.

Failed response to 9/11? Agreed.

Should we never gone to Iraq? Definitely.

Afghanistan? Probably not either.

Solemn occasion? Sure. 100%

But questioning other people's motive? I'm not so sure. It's not appropriate for you to celebrate? Good. It's a free country, and it harms none.

Think less of anyone because of it? Well...