Osama bin Laden DEAD, but what if?

Osama bin Laden Killed

While many are celebrating the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden I am not experiencing the feeling of glee that many are experiencing. Osama bin Laden has been credited with orchestrating the 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya along with the September 11th attacks on The United States of America. Sure, I am glad that Osama bin Laden has finally faced justice for the many senseless acts of terrorism that he mastermind, but the what-ifs just won’t let me shout “Oh Happy Day bin Laden is dead!”

What if this isn’t really Osama bin Laden that was killed by the United States Navy SEALs? What if this was just another Osama bin Laden look-alike and before the week is out, another bin Laden video is released taunting the United States and threatening to do harm to even more innocent Americans?

Piracy on the High Seas

Maybe I have just been out of the loop and uninformed, but I had no idea that pirates still existed. I can’t really say that before this chain of events I even believed pirates ever really existed. For me; pirates were one of those things that you don’t really believe in but you don’t put in the complete fairytale category. When I saw in the news that Somalian pirates had hijacked a US crew ship and had taken the captain hostage I was shocked. How could this have happened? I had no clue that there were modern day pirates and that ships were still being hijacked at sea.

I was amazed when reading these articles

U.S. Crew Ship: Pirates Holding Captain

They outran the pirates for between three and five hours,” Murphy said. “They were finally overtaken, substantial gunfire involved.”   -from CBS News

Pirates Vow to Kill U.S., French Sailors

“We have decided to kill U.S. and French sailors if they happen to be among our future hostages,” said Abdullahi Ahmed, a member of a pirate group based at Harardhere, a coastal town in central Somalia.”      -from CNN.com

New Wave of Somali Pirate Attacks

US President Barack Obama promised on Monday to “halt the rise of piracy” in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.   -from BBC News

 Halt…I didn’t even know it was taking place. I found some very interesting info on this Q&A of Somali Piracy.  It was devastating to hear of Somalia’s extremely poor economy which plays a major part in why some of these young men have become pirates. Read more here —>Young Somalis Lured by Piracy Riches

Now the question arises on how the captured pirates should be punished –> Obama Seeks to Halt Piracy on High Seas