In the end, bin Laden got the carnage he had hoped to unleash. Nearly 3,000 Americans were killed on September 11th. Since then, 6,022 American servicemen and women have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more than 42,000 have been wounded. More than 3,000 allied soldiers have died, along with some 1,200 private contractors, aid workers and journalists.
I find it interesting that no mention is made of the innocent Iraqi civilians that have been killed. I believe the number is around 70-80,000. Perhaps this is because the author of the article doesn't believe most Americans care about foreigners being killed and he may be right. It's still sad, especially since by no stretch of the imagine did Iraq have anything to do with 9/11. And it's quite possible that Osama didn't have anything to do with it either, although he took credit for it.
There's another point here and it's that I find it repulsive to see Americans dancing in the streets and chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!" after his death. I agree that there's a certain cathartic reaction over his death but it's an unnecessary and potentially dangerous action to celebrate it so openly and publicly. Many in the Arab world who find Bin Laden too extreme will see this as little different than the people who protest against the US and burn the American flag and the US president in effigy. They may also think that sending in special ops into a sovereign nation to have somebody assassinated sets a dangerous precedent no matter how worthy the target.
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