No sympathy – live by the sword, die by the sword – but only a coward exults over a corpse.
No sympathy – live by the sword, die by the sword – but only a coward exults over a corpse.
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It’s easy for me not to exult. But if Bin Laden had raped and killed a family member, I might feel differently, and I don’t think it would be about “cowardice”. I think it would be more the result of deep anger.
If I saw someone whose sister was raped go around thumping his chest and chanting “U.S.A.” or his own name when his sister’s rapist was killed, I would suspect the motive would not be deep anger at all. Vengeance produces deep and silent and terrible satisfaction but exultation comes from somewhere else.
The demonstrations reminded me of the munchkins in The Wizard of Oz – people who live in fear celebrate like that. All the horrible things that Achilles did to the body of Hector were done as with all real rage, in terrible seriousness.