The Death of Osama Bin Laden Not Something to Cheer About

While few people in the west, including myself, will miss Osama bin Laden, celebrating his death is unseemly. There really is little to celebrate. Today should be a day of reflection, not a day of crude cheering and patriotic partying. Here are several things that we need to think about--things that put the death of Osama bin Laden in perspective.

1. The capture or death of Osama bin Laden should have taken place at least nine years ago. Instead of focusing on capturing Osama, George W. Bush launched a war against Afghanistan, then Iraq, and now Obama has launched a war against Libya.

2. The above wars are not over. When they end, then we should party.

3. 4452 American troops have died in Iraq and 1556 in Afghanistan, twice the number of Americans killed by Osama on 9/11.

4. More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died and thousands of Afghanis.

5. The Taliban and al-Qaeda still exist, as do other anti-American and anti-NATO terrorists groups.

6. America is still hell-bent on forcing its will on the Middle East. Until we stop doing that, there will be a new bumper crop of terrorists every year.

7. Backlash. The death of Osama bin Laden will most likely resulting in more people dying as fellow terrorists take their anger out. The capture and trial of Osama might have avoided this.

Finally, as John Donne said the death of any person, even the death of an evil person, diminishes all of us. We are all connected.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

It's both sad and strange to see so many people both on the right and the left celebrating Osama's death. It's even more strange to see so many "Christians" celebrating Osama's death. The only death Christians have been called upon to celebrate is the death of Christ.

We do that because his death was redemptive and not final.