Osama bin Laden dead (Official)

[Middle-aged Europe]

Major media fail, especially in Germany ...

Steffen Seibert, press speaker of German Chancellor Merkel:



"Obama, responsible for the death of thousands of innocents, has derided fundamental values of Islam and all Religions."

www.spiegel.de:



"US Military buries Obama at sea."

I guess they were all just a bit too excited, huh?

[Middle-aged Europe]

Angela Merkel is now receiving some flak from her own party for publicly expressing "joy" over Bin Laden's death.  The criticism follows the line of the Vatican's recent statement: It's un-Christian to feel joy over the death of another person.

[Middle-aged Europe]

What I have seen from the German press in the last few days has been quite scathing; they have chastised Merkel for expressing "joy" at bin Laden's death,

Wasn't really an accusation brought forward by "the press". It was made by a couple of Catholic CDU politicians. And since it was criticism directed at Merkel and not at America as such, so I don't see where anti-Americanism enters into it here. Truth be told, Merkel's statement sounded in fact kind of weird and certainly exceeded Obama's own remarks on events.

and argued that bin Laden's burial at sea was in fact not respectful or observant of Islamic burial practices, but was merely done in "revenge."

Well, it was neither done in revenge (haven't seen such an accusation myself, where its is from?), nor did if fully respect Islamic burial practices. Gving him a burial within 24 hours did respect Islamic practices, not burrying him in the ground didn't. So, the truth lies somewhwere in the middle here.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Jonathan,

This is the piece I primarily had in mind in my previous post.

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,760151,00.html

Not surprising that it's Spiegel, actually. Comforting actually that it is from them.

Its polemics aside, I actually think that this SPIEGEL article makes some legitimate points. Nothing particularly "outragous" here.

Doesn't differ much from Helmut Schmidt's remarks on Beckmann this week regarding his "mixed feelings" on Bin Laden's death... and this guy actually has first-hand experience when it comes to ordering the killing of Muslim terrorists, so to speak. The more his argument carried weight, I guess. Footage of Angela Merkel's "anouncement of joy" was also used as the opener on Harald Schmidt yesterday. When something starts to get satirized you know that there's something inherently wrong about it.

I agree however that the kind of reporting on that sensationalist Austrian news site Tender Branson poster earlier here is inappropriate and tasteless. "New allegations against U.S. soldiers" is also an "odd" way to put it since I don't remember hearing any real allegations against the SEAL team so far.

[Middle-aged Europe]

^^

You gotta admit, it's a "news" site which dedicates a whole section to tittie pics. In a way, their article on the Bin Laden killing is just another kind of porn.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I don't quite understand the Europeans' focus on the word "revenge". It seems perfectly logical that a terrorist mastermind would be a military target for several reasons, not least to prevent him for participating in future terrorist activities. Based on what was said about plans to target American rail, it seems like killing him serves a legitimate strategical purpose as well.

And of course that the "revenge" you speak of is nothing more than a feel-good European way of implying that they're something better. Oh no, we don't seek revenge in Europe! Any punishment, whether it's a fine or jail term or execution can be interpreted as "revenge".

So yeah, let's all feel sorry for the poor unarmed terrorist Bin Laden that was so coldheartedly and brutally killed by the American Liquidation Commando.

Then again, saying that Bin Laden didn't deserve a fair trial because he was "sufficiently evil" to just kill him right away certainly opens up a can of worms. Even Hermann Göring was entitled to a trial and legal representation. And he certainly killed a whole lot more people than Bin Laden.

However, you could make the case that cirumstances didn't allow to capture Bin Laden and transport him out of the country without endangering the well-being of the military personnel involved in the operation or the success of the operation as such. Of course, we also don't have sufficient information to make such a judgement.

If "revenge" was a motive for the operation it's certainly worthy of criticism, since it would mean that the decision to approve military action was based on emotion. On the other hand, most "revenge" criticism are directed at "inappropriate" public reactions regarding the outcome of the operation than the operation itself.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Uh, regarding the German justice system and the question of murderers and/or terrorists:

Just because it's theoretically possible to release a murderer after 15 years, doesn't mean there's an automatism to do so. In fact, most murderers aren't released after 15 years. I think that's a common mistake.

For instance, RAF terrorist Christian Klar was pardoned after 26 years, while his "comrade" Birgit Hogefeld is still in prison today. Osama Bin Laden would have been 80 after 26 years in prison.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Another example of fail by German television... but this time a rather amusing one.

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http://io9.com/#!5799767/according-to-german-tv-anti+starfleet-rebels-helped-take-down-osama-bin-laden