By: Thomas Reyour

While many are perhaps overzealously reveling and celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden, I propose that rather than throwing up our hands, screaming, “Ding, Dong, bin Laden’s dead!” that we rather take this moment in history in silent reflection. Thousands upon thousands dead, civil liberties trampled upon, billions of dollars spent, all in the pursuit of finding this one man. And while I’m not saying that bin Laden didn’t deserve to die, or at least be punished for his many crimes against humanity, perhaps we as Americans should look back and examine the reasons as to why bin Laden and many of his followers felt it necessary to conduct such heinous acts. No one wakes up and says, ‘Ah, I feel like bombing a bunch of people today!’ Rather, if analyzed further, much of the blame as to why these radical terrorists did what they did will probably rest on America’s shoulders.

Some might believe that Imperialism, or Colonialism, ended fifty years or so ago, and that it could probably never happen again. But I’d have to contend that it’s a false assumption to think that horrible, exploitive ideologies cannot take on different tones and shapes. Economically, much of our foreign policy mirrors that of Britain and France’s. We occupy these countries through their pockets, impoverishing and exploiting their very means of survival until they’re left only to turn to desperate measures—which is where bin Laden, and characters like him, take root. There is perhaps no side that is completely blameless, Democrat or Republican, West or East, Judeo-Christian or Islam, it took a collective effort to arrive from 9/11 to where we are right now.

Perhaps what we need to do right now is take a page from probably the greatest president America has ever seen, Abraham Lincoln. When the Confederacy was at the brink of losing and was merely days from conceding to the Union’s demands, Lincoln did not rub the Union’s victory into the Confederacy’s face, nor did he succumb to popular sentiments of taking revenge upon the Confederacy. Rather, Lincoln, in his great magnanimity sought to reconcile with the South and called upon the American public to recognize the humanity, no matter what side, in us all. And part of humanity means recognizing the moral and intellectual limitations of every man.