bin Laden dead, time to reflect, not just whoop it up.

I can't say I was sad or happy to hear that the US had killed Osama bin Laden.

He'd been reported dead before anyway, so I don't jump at headlines.

I think, if after 9/11, they'd treated that massive crime, as a crime and hunted the man down, caught him, or killed him resisting, I would have been happy about it.

But after 9 and a half years, during which the crimes of 9-11 were abused as cover for the slaughter of innocent Afghans and Iraqis, hearing that bin Laden is dead brought me no relief.

Certainly he didn't deserve to be free and happy, but I strongly feel that the most just solution for the 'War on Terror' would be bin Laden in handcuffs awaiting trial for mass murder, while Bush and Blair sit in the dock in the Hague.

I understand why Americans would 'whoop it up', after the trauma of 9/11 and long years of war, they need some relief, and some attempt at closure. I would respectfully suggest that bloodlust is not a healthy outlet for stress, precisely because of where it leads people.

Was it not blind lust for revenge that caused so many to avoid scrutinising the logic of carpet bombing Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world, and then invading Iraq? Would they have swallowed the lies so easily if they were not driven by fear and vengeance?

For the US, bin Laden was supposedly the no. 1 terrorist, and they were the good guys.

For a lot of the world, bin Laden was a notorious terrorist, but in a much smaller league than Bush, Blair and their fellow warmongers.

I'm sure a lot of US and western newspapers will use the word 'Justice' about the killing of bin Laden. When will the victims of Fallujah, Abu Ghraib, 'Shock and Awe' see their justice?

If westerners can get 'closure' from bin Laden's death, and feel no sympathy to those Iraqis and Afghans shredded, blasted and burned by high tech weapons, then any claim they stake to moral superiority rings very hollow.