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Ground Zero celebration. Image: Brian KuslerFeature image: NYCMarines
YOU CAN CHEER if you want.
–Peter Gadiel, father of 23 year-old son killed on 9/11
The question is what are you cheering?
Are you cheering because you think the world is now a safer place?
Are you cheering for someone you loved who was killed on 9/11?
Are you cheering because this brings closure?
Are you cheering someone you loved who wasn’t killed on 9/11, but some other time, some other war?
Are you cheering someone who wasn’t killed but came back altered somehow?
–Alan García, President of Peru on Osama bin Laden’s death the day after John Paul the 2nd’s beatification
Are you cheering God?
Are you cheering someone who didn’t fight in any war but just did his work or raised her family, and is someone you think of when you think “a good person”?
Are you cheering good overcoming evil?
Are you cheering because you think al Qaeda is damaged?
–Robert Fisk, veteran journalist who interviewed Osama bin Laden 3 times, on the irrelevance of bin Laden’s death
Are you cheering because this changes the “Arab world?”
Are you cheering because it’s easier when there’s a common enemy?
Are you cheering because we have one less enemy?
Are you only pretending to be cheering?
Is it the president’s words you’re cheering?
Is it his delivery?
–President Obama on death of bin Laden
Are you cheering the person who wrote the words?
Are you cheering the soldiers who fired the shots?
Are you cheering their parents?
Are you cheering all the instructors through the years that taught them how to shoot?
Is it the helicopter pilots you’re cheering?
The technicians who put fuel in the helicopters?
The people who worked in the refineries that produced the fuel?
The factory workers who made the bullets?
The engineers who designed the satellites?
The developers of the imaging software that allowed us to gather intelligence?
The interrogators at Guantanamo?
The intelligence operatives monitoring phone calls?
Was it just the fact that the we live in a country with the power and technology and soldiers that could accomplish this?
Was some of the cheering just for the idea that maybe we’re the only country that could do this?
–Marc Ambinder describing the SEALS’ raid on Osama bin Laden
That we did this alone?
That it could happen–and be described–like something from a movie?
Are you cheering as a form of payback for those cheering around US soldiers’ and defense contractors’ bodies strung up in Fallujah?
For Daniel Pearl?
Are you cheering because you remember people blaming 9/11 victims?
Are you cheering because some moments aren’t meant to be politicized or analyzed and you just have to cheer?
Is part of what you’re cheering that you never really understood Osama bin Laden’s life or his family’s connections with the US, and that it’s all just too complicated and easier now that he’s gone, that this is over?
Are you cheering just because the moment feels safe and protected and unified with those around you?
Is it something you just feel in that moment, at that place, and it’s impossible to understand unless you were there (although easy to question if you weren’t)?
What is it, exactly, you’re cheering? 
David Miller
David Miller is Senior Editor of Matador (winner of 2010 and 2011 Lowell Thomas awards for travel journalism) and Director of Curricula at MatadorU. Follow him @dahveed_miller.
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I get no pleasure from killing a cockroach but OBL was a different breed of parasite, one very difficult to eliminate. The fact that we did kill him is proof to them that we are some bad-ass exterminators and they need to run for cover. What ever whining goes in in the process is just that, nothing more. It’s a tough job, take it like a man you sofa surfers.
The fact is that no solid evidence has ever been presented that he was even responsible for 9/11. That said, what the heck gives the US the right to shoot this unarmed suspect dead and not put him on trial??? This goes against all international laws. Why has this not been condemned by the international community? The monsters of Nazi Germany were brought to justice (actual justice, not an eye-for-an-eye) by the allies and were shown for what they were in front of the eyes of the world. Why wasnt bin Laden???
David, I haven’t read the comments, so I don’t know what anyone else has said.
Let me first say, this is one of the most important articles, I feel, that you could have written. People need to question this reaction.
Rashard Mendenhall was criticised… on ESPN!! for voicing similar opinions.
I was ridiculed on Facebook by friends for being a “Fun hater” and anti-patriotic, told a la Ricki Stanzi, that if I ‘don’t love it, leave it’.
I said repeatedly, that this War on Terror is not one that should be conducted by our military, but by our people, like you, like me. I think the best piece I came up with for this topic was, “This is not a war that is going to be won with bullets and bombs, but maybe with books.”
Thanks for making people think about their reaction without attacking their reaction. I feel like you might have a better chance at reaching people than I did with my anger.
Cheers,
Jared