Saturday, May 14, 2011

Retaliation for Bin Laden's Death

I know that by now, this is old news.  But for those of you who have been living in a hole for the past two weeks, Osama Bin Laden died on May 2nd.  When this news hit, mixed emotions spread throughout America.  Some were ecstatic about the death of this monster.  Others acknowledged that he was a cruel person, but did not celebrate his death.  Others felt a sense of closure; many innocent Americans who died on 9-11-2001were now avenged.  Others were worried about possible retaliation from Al-Qaeda.  As for myself, at first I felt relieved that he died.  However, now that the initial shock of this death has passed over, I feel worried. Al-Qaeda has already threatened to retaliate against the US.  To learn about this threat, read this article.  Also, I am worried about what might happen to further anger Al-Qaeda.  For example, take the video game Call of Duty Black Ops.  In this game, there is a mission where the player assassinates Fidel Castro.  Here is a YouTube video which shows this scene (caution: even though it is a video game, it is still gory).  After Black Ops was released back in November 2010, Cuba was furious.  An article was published in a Cuban news paper, and the article said that Black Ops "glorifies the illegal assassination attempts the United States government planned against the Cuban leader."  The article went on to say that the video game "stimulates sociopathic attitudes in North America children and adolescents."  I fear that other video games and television shows may follow in Black Ops' footsteps, and have Bin Laden as the target rather than Castro.  Cuba only published an angry article, but I fear Al-Qaeda will want blood if millions of American kids are killing Osama in a video game.  I hope that other Americans realize how serious this situation is, and that if we keep celebrating Osama's death, things could get ugly in the near future.

1 comment:

  1. Interesting take on this event. So should we as a country just "tone it down" only because we fear retaliation? Your post seems to imply that.

    I wish you would have separates the CoD material into a separate post -- would have been very provocative given the number of your peers (and teachers) who play these games.

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