"The Christian West bases a great deal on the sefl-conceit that it is superior as a civilization to Islamic countries. However, what is happening in the U.S. now leaves a different impression. When American citizens celebrate the death of bin Laden with dancing and chanting, it fills the local onlooker with dread--the jubilation estranges, because it shows us that American society is more distant from us than it may appear. 'In God We Trust" is on every U.S. dollar, but this is not the forgiving God of the New Testament, but rather the vengeful God of the Old Testament. In this country, re-socialization is the aim of government punishment--in the U.S., (the aim) is retribution, all the way up to capital punishment. Capital punishment, particularly when it is accompanied by no (legal) process as in the case of bin Laden, and when criminality and rage suffice to invoke it, and when in its implementation it is euphorically celebrated, belies how deeply the "eye for an eye" ideology is rooted in American society. The quest for revenge may be powerful, but it is not morally estimable."
yo, Osama died on his chosen battlefield and from his command center. the ideas behind that article are actually more dangerous to freedom (because it is advocating defeat) than Osama ever was
