ST. BONAVENTURE (May 9)—Students and faculty at St. Bonaventure University agree that the recent death of Osama Bin Laden was a step toward a terrorism-free world, but they still don’t feel safe.
Barack Obama announced the capture and death of Bin Laden May 1, leading to debates over if the correct precautions were taken while capturing and killing him. Students and faculty said they were unsure if American forces needed to kill Bin Laden in order to capture him.
“I felt a sense of satisfaction that everybody was elated despite the fact that the majority of the country spent the last 10 years complaining about the war and George Bush,” said Tim Crino, a freshman English major.
“I have always thought that the war was worthwhile,” he said. Crino said that he believed that the recent turn of events will certainly be helpful to squashing terrorism.
“The death of Bin Laden gives closure to those who lost family members in 9/11 and military people who have been fighting the war on terror.” James said that the military did achieve their mission of finding and getting Bin Laden out of power.
But not everyone agrees that Bin Laden should have died.
“Although perhaps justice was done, I don’t think we should be rejoicing over any man’s death, regardless of the things he did,” said Kyle Alpha, freshman biochemistry major.
Peter Schneible, a friar and biology professor at St. Bonaventure, shared views with Alpha.
“I suppose we could justify killing Bin Laden. There was ample evidence that he committed a crime,” Schneible said.
Schneible described the situation to be similar to a criminal resisting arrest, and police officers having the right to use violence in order to capture the criminal.
“Still, there should be no initial intention to kill under any circumstances. We should not be rejoicing a man’s death,” he said.
Mary Rose Kubal, a political science professor as well as the department chair, said she does not agree with the killing of Bin Laden, but for different reasons.
“It was not the optimal way of handling it. Bin Laden should have been captured alive and put on trial,” she said.
Kubal said since the United States had already waited so many years to capture him, they could’ve waited a few more months in order to plan out how to catch him alive.
“Just because Bin Laden has been killed doesn’t mean we are in any less danger of terrorism,” she said. “It might inspire certain groups to plan attacks, which doesn’t make me feel safer.”
“My biggest issue with Bin Laden being killed is all the spam on the internet,” said Christina Messner, a senior biology major. “That is just really disrespectful. I don't like the attitude everyone has taken on,” she said.
Messner described this attitude as “disrespectful and just as bad as Al-Qaeda's attitude toward us.”
“I think it's sick that we have to see a picture of a man who was killed to be happy,” Messner said. “I just feel that we need to remember that we hate their actions, so we shouldn't act that way in return.”
Kara Deighan, freshman undeclared arts major, said she wasn’t affected by the news too much.
“I didn’t really care that much. It doesn’t matter to me,” said Deighan.
James said that the US raising national security even more is something to pay attention to, however.
“Obviously tensions grow strong when a leader is taken out of power. If something happened to Obama, the United States would try to whole whoever was responsible accountable for their actions,” he said.
“Al-Qaeda will attempt terrorist attacks no matter what, but Americans can’t be afraid,” he said. “We need to stand up to it and prepare ourselves to stop something before it happens, and see what our national intelligence can do to prevent it.”
James said that keeping troops in the Middle East is an important aspect of keeping up our defenses.
“When you have troops in a vulnerable land, you can’t just take someone out of power and automatically remove the troops,” he said.
James said that innocent civilians that are being harmed by radicals depend on American forces for protection.
“To take military out right now would be extremely irresponsible,” he said. “We should wait at least a year; we have not completed goal of removing all terror from the region, we’ve just taken out one leader.”
Messner said that despite having relatives overseas who she would like to see return home, she agreed that keeping troops in the Middle East is important at this time.
“I have family in the army, so I wish we weren't over there, but I think since we went over there, we can't just leave. We have to see it through,” she said.
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