Fact Check: What is the Right Way to Respond to Osama Bin Laden’s Death? (From the Archives: 24.May.2011)

Fifteen years ago today, I wrote the following regarding the death of Osama Bin Laden:

What is the Right Way to Respond to Osama Bin Laden’s Death?

Originally published on deliberatingtruth.wordpress.com on 24 May 2011

Speculation and condemnation rises in the Middle East. Fear whispers to Americans in foreign countries. Celebration continues in the United States. Which of these emotions is worthy of our attention? Are any of them the right way to respond?

There are reasons to question even the death of Bin Laden. There is no visual evidence of death. Could this be a brilliantly devised trick by the government to gain an excuse to exit Afghanistan? Won’t president Obama gain notoriety for these events? The 2012 election will no doubt be influenced by this event.

Then, there are reasons to condemn. The United States informed Pakistan of nothing. The U.S. commandos flew over Pakistani soil, killed Bin Laden, three men, and one woman, and flew back to the safety of Afghanistan without giving so much as a subtle hint of their intentions to Pakistani officials. Pakistan surely deserves praise for their cooperation with the United States. Instead, Americans praise and celebrate the U.S. Navy, the CIA, and the president, while Pakistan sits silently and confused after a shocking incident occurred on their home soil.

Also, there is fear. The elimination of the Taliban’s head honcho will certainly result in retaliation. American’s may be safe to celebrate on their home soil thousands of miles away from the middle east, but what will happen to Americans in heavily Arab populated countries? Nothing seemed to provoke the 911 attack. Shouldn’t retaliation to the murder of an exalted leader be much larger in magnitude?

In those who are less likely to worry there is celebration. Americans chant, “USA! USA! USA!” in the streets of New York and Washington D.C. as the leader of the September 11th attacks, in which over 2,700 people were killed, is now dead. Thousands, compared to four? If the deaths of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini were celebrated, shouldn’t the whole world be celebrating the demise of this terrorist?

Out of those four emotionally charged responses, which one do you support, or do you have a totally different viewpoint? Should the world doubt if this event is true, should Pakistan condemn the United States for their deceptive actions, should people ever react out of fear, or should one ever celebrate a loss of life? What is the right way to respond?

Wrong. Concise. Good questions.

(1) Wrong:

• “There are reasons to question even the death of Bin Laden.”
  • There were “reasons to question” Osama’s death but not reasonable reasons. Multiple sources of evidence confirming Bin Laden’s identity were available in May of 2011:
    • The United States releases DNA and facial recognition test results (CBS, 2011; Starr, 2011)
    • Al-Qaeda acknowledges Bin Laden’s death and promised revenge (BBC, 2011)
    • A soldier lays down next to Bin Laden to confirm his height (McRaven, 2019)
    • Rhodes (2018) describes at least 5 photos of Bin Laden’s body in his memoir
• “The 2012 election will no doubt be influenced by this event.”
  • It’s difficult to quantify the impact of Bin Laden’s assassination on the 2012 U.S. Presidential election, but President Obama won.
• “Then, there are reasons to condemn.”
  • Not very good ones.
    • Bin Laden confessed to his acts of terrorism (Bin Laden, 2004), and his actions repeatedly harmed and endangered the people and places that surrounded his life.
  • In a truly just society, any person who designs, instigates, finances, and orchestrates (i.e. commits) acts resulting in the deaths of other people needs to stand before a judge and jury, but circumstances do not always allow this.
    • While more efforts could have been made to take Bin Laden alive, his sudden and swift execution reciprocates the apathy he showed to the victims of his crimes.
  • The Obama Administration’s refusal of hoopla surrounding Bin Laden’s death was appropriate.
    • The years of effort and multitude of resources spent on bringing the man to justice display the capacity and commitment of the U.S. government to fulfill it’s primary function: “…form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” (U.S. Senate, 2023).
• “Pakistan surely deserves praise for their cooperation with the United States.”
  • “Pakistan surely deserves praise” for many things but not for cooperation with the United States.
    • Pakistani officials were often uncooperative with the United States government (Coll, 2018).
    • Bin Laden’s home in Abbottabad, Pakistan was one mile from the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) in Kakul (Bertrand, 2015).

• “The elimination of the Taliban’s head honcho will certainly result in retaliation.”
  • Al-Qaeda’s retaliation plans were largely thwarted by U.S. military and intelligence organizations (Cilluffo et al., 2013; Fellman & Sanderson, 2013).
• “Thousands, compared to four?”
  • Thousands of people died in the September 11th attacks (Britannica, 2025), and one could argue the United States had already been exacting revenge – in the form of both targeted killings and collateral deaths, casualties, and damage – on the region harboring Bin Laden.
    • Five, not four, people were killed in the raid (W. Napier III, 2021).
    • U.S. involvement internationally (e.g. Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.) had already resulted in thousands of deaths (Costs of War Project, 2025); Hagopian et al., 2013).

(2) Concise

• A short read is nicer than a long one. More context, fewer words. Time is precious.

(3) Good Question

• If the deaths of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini were celebrated, shouldn’t the whole world be celebrating the demise of this terrorist?
  • When President Obama refused to release photos of Bin Laden’s body, he reportedly said, “We’re not going to spike the football” (Rhodes, 2018).
    • The United States celebrates the sport of American football and the traditions that surround it.
    • The National Football League (NFL), which has some of the most consistently bipartisan audiences in the United States, once considered it bad sportsmanship to throw (i.e. spike) the ball into the turf after a touchdown (Newall & Mendez, 2025; Reuters, 2007).
      • The NFL has since relaxed their touchdown celebration rules, largely eliminating the spike penalty (Patra, 2017).

In our 250th year, are we the people of these United States spiking the football too little or a little too much?

Sources:

BBC News. (2011, May 6). “Al-Qaeda statement” confirms Osama Bin Laden’s death. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-13313201

Bertrand, N. (2015, May 17). There’s an uncomfortable mystery behind Osama bin Laden living in Pakistan for 5 years. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/did-pakistan-know-about-bin-laden-living-there-2015-5

Bin Laden, U. (2004, November 1). Full transcript of bin Ladin’s speech. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2004/11/1/full-transcript-of-bin-ladins-speech

Britannica Editors. “How Many People Were Killed in the September 11 Attacks?”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Sep. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/topic/How-many-people-were-killed-in-the-September-11-attacks. Accessed 24 May 2026.

CBS News. (2011, May 3). Call for evidence of bin Laden’s death [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoVnFmQt1_g

Cilluffo, F. J., Zimmerman, K. L., Katulis, B., The Jewish Federations of North America, & The Henry Jackson Society. (2013). UNDERSTANDING THE THREAT TO THE HOMELAND FROM AQAP. HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON COUNTERTERRORISM AND INTELLIGENCE OF THE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. https://www.congress.gov/113/chrg/CHRG-113hhrg86483/CHRG-113hhrg86483.pdf

Coll, S. (2018). Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s secret wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Penguin Press.

Costs of War Project. (2025). Human costs of post-9/11 wars: Direct war deaths in major war zones. Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University. https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs/human

Fellman, Z., & Sanderson, T. M. (2013, August 6). Closing Embassies in the Middle East and the Threat from al Qaeda. Critical Questions. https://www.csis.org/analysis/closing-embassies-middle-east-and-threat-al-qaeda

Hagopian, A., Flaxman, A. D., Takaro, T. K., Esa Al Shatari, S. A., Rajaratnam, J., Becker, S., Levin-Rector, A., Galway, L., Hadi Al-Yasseri, B. J., Weiss, W. M., Murray, C. J., & Burnham, G. (2013). Mortality in Iraq associated with the 2003–2011 invasion and occupation: Data from a national cluster sample survey. PLOS Medicine, 10(10), Article e1001533. National Institutes of Health PubMed Central. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3797125/ [1, 2]

McRaven, W. H. (2019). Sea stories: My life in special operations. Grand Central Publishing. [1, 2]

Napier III, W. (2021, April 30). OPERATION Neptune Spear: 10 year anniversary. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://www.nellis.af.mil/News/Article/2591901/operation-neptune-spear-10-year-anniversary/

• Unknown. n.d. “Operation Neptune Spear.” 911 Memorial. https://www.911memorial.org/learn/resources/digital-exhibitions/digital-exhibition-revealed-hunt-bin-laden/operation-neptune-spear

Newall, M., & Mendez, B. (2025, August 26). Sports in America: What we play, what we watch, what we agree on—and what we don’t. Ipsos. https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/sports-america-what-we-play-what-we-watch-what-we-agree-and-what-we-dont

Patra, K. (2017, May 23). NFL relaxing touchdown celebration rules for players. NFL.com. https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-relaxing-touchdown-celebration-rules-for-players-0ap3000000810537

Rhodes, B. (2018). The world as it is: A memoir of the Obama White House. Random House. [1]

Reuters. (2007, August 9). New spiking penalty among several rules changesfolsom. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/sports/new-spiking-penalty-among-several-rules-changes-idUSN12263655/

Starr, D. B., Ask-a-Geneticist, & Stanford at the Tech. (2011, May 4). Could they really have done all those genetic tests on Osama bin Laden so quickly? – The Tech Interactive. thetech.org. Retrieved May 8, 2026, from https://www.thetech.org/ask-a-geneticist/articles/2011/ask408/

The United States’ Prosecution of Nicolás Maduro Moros: United States v. Maduro. (2026, May 24). https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/LSB11401

U.S. Senate (2023, August 7). Constitution of the United States. https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/senate-and-constitution/constitution.htm