"This was no more than an act of vengeance."

No, it was a bit more, Jim. It was an act of justice. You are conveniently whistling by the fact that this man masterminded the murder of thousands of Americans, and at least 52 British citizens, men, women, and children, in the London Underground, and God knows how many other people. And it also acts as a warning to anyone who might wish to step into his shoes that he is painting a bull's eye on his forehead. "It may take awhile, but sooner or later, we'll get you! So think about it!"

Jim, your biases are patently clear and your sympathies lie in strange places indeed!

The American people are satisfied that Osama bin Laden is dead. That is understandable to any sane person. Some had the bad taste to go out in public and celebrate raucously—and much of the media, in its equally bad taste, love to focus on this sort of thing, and this, of course, is what you see on television and feel impelled to comment on. But—the vast majority of Americans felt a grim satisfaction that bin Laden has been dealt with and will not be engineering any more mass murders. They didn't, however, go out, wave a flag, and cheer about it. One does not generally celebrate the execution of a mad dog.

Those who get their jollies by thinking the worst of Americans will, of course, continue to think that the whole population was cheering and flag-waving. By this means, they demonstrate their own prejudices.

As to the matter of vast armadas of American aircraft transporting detainees to countries where torture is legal going through Shannon airport—or Heathrow, or Orly, or any other commercial airport is concerned—simply does not make sense. Think about it! If a suspected terrorist were to be captured here in Seattle and he were deemed by the CIA to be withholding important information, he would not be flown out of the Seattle-Tacoma International airport—or O'Hare, or JFK, or Logan, or LaGuardia—over the pole to Shannon, Ireland, and then to some country where "enhanced interrogation" is practiced. He would be put on a military aircraft and flown out of McChord Air Force Base near Fort Lewis south of Tacoma. Or some other military airfield. And if landing to refuel were necessary, the plane would not land at commercial airports, it would land at military airbases, which the same "Yank-bashers" are giggly to point out, are located all over the world, and are "yet another example of U.S. imperialism and exploitation."

So all those "extraordinary rendition" flights going through Shannon airport that you like to harp on about? I think I have good reason to believe that they are products of your imagination. Or of somebody's imagination, and you, in your biases, are predisposed to believe them.

Bloody nonsense!!

Now, Barack Obama said early on that he would end such things as "extraordinary rendition" and "enhanced interrogation," which the vast majority of Americans found (and continue to find) totally unacceptable. As they find many of the practices of intelligence agencies in general. Whether Obama did end the practice may be open to question, but if it were to be discovered or revealed that he didn't, I think he could say goodbye to any idea of a second term.

There are not enough bulls in the galaxy to produce the amount of manure that's floating around here in sympathy for the sudden and much deserved demise of a mass murder! And animosity directed at those who had the dangerous and unenviable job of taking out the garbage.

Don Firth

P. S. Pat Condell had the right of it.