How does the death of Osama Bin Laden compare to the death of Adolf Hitler?

Well, there were both men who led people in murdering others and they were both killed. When they died, some people celebrated and others swore to continue their work. Both deaths were/will be (in the case of Osama) used to be push agendas that are using them as scapegoats but same can be said of when they were alive.

relatively irrelevant

Both of their deaths were announced on May 1st.

(not old enough to remember, but old enough to read)

Quite a few similarities, quite a few large differences. The most notable difference I would say is that of scale. I think in 200 years time, Bin Laden will be reduced to a footnote in history, perhaps something allong the lines of how we remember the hindenburg disaster today. Most people just have “the humanity!” and 4 seconds of footage in their mind regarding it. Hitler however, he will still be a popular figure in even 1000 years, kind of like Genghis Khan is still studied and talked about today.

Death toll of 9/11: 2,977

Documented Iraqi non-combatant deaths: 98,170 – 107,152

Death toll of holocaust (Jewish): 4.8 – 5.8 million
Soviet civilian deaths during WW2: 12 – 14 million
Soviet military deaths during WW2: 8 – 10 million
... for starters (those are the major categories that ultimately you can pin most of the blame on Hitler for, source)

Yes, I think it is true. I compare them all the time. They are both reminders that throughout history there are hateful murderous people who will kill mass numbers of innocent people for no reason. And, in the future there will be another person like this again. There are people in the world still like this, but we are less aware, because they are less known.

When 9/11 happened and everyone thought something could never happenin the US. They forgot the lessons of Hitler being able to happen in Germany. They ignored the terrorism that had happened around the world leading up to it.

When the plane hit the first tower we did not evacuate the second, in my opinion because we did not pay attention to history. Let’s not make that mistake again.

He was not the “leader” of “al-Qaeda”.

In fact, he didn’t control, command, fund or advise even a significant fraction of it.

He was just portrayed as such by the American establishment, because they need to maintain icons of hate and fear in the minds of the American people, in order to bend their collective will to their ends.

Without these aggrandized icons, there could never be “victories”, which is another thing the establishment feels the American people “need” putting into their brains.

I don’t know how the Americans expected to get away with befriending, funding, training, using, deceiving, betraying, abandoning and demonizing a man like Osama (he wasn’t called a terrorist when he was an American ally, but he had exactly the same agenda), but they didn’t get away with it, and he got his revenge in 2001.

Then, 10 years later, the most powerful military and intelligence services in the world finally manage to shoot a single man in the head, and the Americans get their chance to dance in the street chanting U.S.A. U.S.A. as if their country is actually good for something other than manufacturing & selling weapons and creating financial disasters. But, in lieu of freedom, equality, peace, good health and consciousness, I suppose that’s what the establishment felt the people needed.
An good old, all-American celebration of Death.

Well, if it makes them happy, I suppose it’s easier than actually raising the standards of living or creating a peaceful, equal society.

But the reality is, of course, that Al-Qaeda is not the headless chicken post-Hitler Nazi Germany was, because al-Qaeda is more a hydra…

Not in any way. Bin Laden was a terrorist who killed a few thousand people. Hitler caused the deaths of millions!

@marinelife But Bin Laden would have caused the deaths of millions if he could have.

@Dutchess_III Would have doesn’t count in horseshoes or murder.

@Dutchess_III Irrelevant.

any shoplifter probably would have stolen the crown jewels, if he could have…
doesn’t make his arrest of comparable significance to that of someone who did…

I am speaking of intention and desire. To that end, they’re the same. They both believed in the superiority of their own race/religion/whatever, and to that end they wanted to kill anyone who didn’t fall into their perception of perfection.

@Dutchess_III No, Osama lashed out against Americans, because the US government befriended him and for years supported his movement to establish a pan-Arab Islamic Caliphate across the Middle East, but when the Soviet Union fell apart, they abandoned and demonized him.

Now, the Americans had been training and funding him and his movement for many years, so when they stabbed him in the back and revealed they’d been lying to him & simply using him, they made him look a fool, and he was furious. So, he used what the Americans had given him against them.

If you don’t want to be a victim of terrorism, don’t fund, train and subsequently betray your terrorist allies.

The American establishment were well aware of this danger, but they do what they feel they must…

@poisonedantidote – It’s weird how you mention the Hindenburg. A few dozen people died (a tragedy to be sure) and it was like, “Oh the humanity!” But now a plane goes down once every year or two and hundreds of people die in an instant, and it’s just routine news.

@HungryGuy But it would be different if we saw the plane going down, bursting into flames, people jumping out, all in slow motion….

@Dutchess_III – Yeah. That’s true. Good point.

They are hardly in the same class. Hitler’s crimes are on an immeasurably greater scale than those of Osama.

All I really know is that 2 incredibly evil men are dead. Good riddance.

Hitler committed suicide. Bin Laden resisted apprehension and got shot.

After he hid behind one of his women.

You sure?

@mattbrowne That’s what “they’re” saying…it’s starting to sound like she rushed at the SEAL’s. She was his 29 year old wife.