Osama Bin Laden dead.

I woke up this morning ready to embrace my last day as a 21 year old, turned on my TV, as you do, and was greeted with the news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. My first thought was BLOG! My second thought was "actually Emma you normally blog about really trivial things, like bags, shoes and celebrities, you could be a little out of your depth with this one." Then my third thought was "hold on a minute, I could have sworn they killed him years ago." (I was later advised that that was in fact Saddam Hussein - proving the second thought to be accurate!) So yeah this isn't exactly my forte, but hey I'll give it a shot, why not! (Oh and by the way for those who were wondering, my forth thought was "I'm hungry." Standard!)

Let’s start with some background; Osama Bin Laden was the founder of the jihadist organization al-Qaeda, who as a group, were responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States along with numerous other mass-casualty attacks including the 7^th of July one in London. He was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation’s lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists. Since 2001 Osama Bin Laden and his organization had been major targets of the U.S. War on Terror. He had been believed to be hiding near the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan along with fellow al-Qaeda leaders. On May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama announced to the world that nine years, seven months and twenty days later, Osama Bin Laden, the ‘mastermind’ behind the attacks, had been killed in a firefight by American forces. He was allegedly found hiding in a million-dollar three-story mansion (alright for some) in Abbottabad, Pakistan. After the news broke crowds gathered outside of the White House, Ground Zero and in Times Square to celebrate.

The first time I personally heard of Bin Laden was after the attacks that took place on America on the 11^th of September 2001. It was the most disturbing event I had ever seen. I remember going home from school and for the first time in my life my eyes were glued to Sky News. I couldn’t stop watching, it’s like when you drive past a crash on a motorway you have a look to see even though you’re wary of what your eyes may come across. It was truly horrific and too much for my 11 year old brain to cope with. I was obviously aware that this was a major event, but it seemed so far away and it hadn’t personally affected me directly. The closest person I knew who was involved was a colleague of my Dad; Eric Picht. He was actually unfortunate enough to then be on a tube when the attack happened in London as well; thankfully he lived to tell the tales unlike so many others. Anyway a few years later and I visited New York with my family and we went to visit Ground Zero. My Dad showed us where a hotel used to be where he used to stay when he worked in New York (how gutted am I that he turned down a position there when he found out my mum was pregnant with me. I could have been a real-life ‘Upper East-Sider’ I’ll never forgive him for this.) Although the rubble had been cleared and there were new buildings all around it still hit home how horrific it had been. Walking the streets around Ground Zero made me remember watching people running for their lives away from the thick smoke and rubble that was following them, screaming, crying and looking for safety, and there I was walking around those same streets, on holiday, clutching my brand new Chloe bag without a care in the world. It really hit home then.

On the morning of the 11^th of September 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the aeroplanes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. Both towers collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into The Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C., to target the White House. There were no survivors from any of the flights. There were nearly 3,000 victims in total. Devastating.

As today, 2^nd May 2011, has gone by more details have been released and it has been made public that Osama Bin Laden’s body has been buried in the North Arabian Sea, in a process that followed Islamic traditions. His body was washed, wrapped in white sheet and placed in a weighted bag for burial at sea. A U.S. military officer gave scripted religious remarks before the body slid into the sea. I’m sorry but the man ruined thousands of lives why they hell are you respecting him and his beliefs? It also seems a little convenient that we don’t get to see his actual body (not that I’d personally want to.) To me, it’s a little bit fishy (no pun intended) or maybe it’s just me being a massive cynic and wanting actual physical proof that it has happened before I believe.

There’s absolutely no doubt that Osama Bin Laden was an evil, twisted man who totally deserved to die. How anyone could want to ruin so many people’s lives and cause such devastation is totally beyond me. And although I am happy and thankful that he has been killed, it would be naïve of me to think that this would mean the end of it all, although I wish it could be. Sadly, I personally don’t see that there is that much to cheer about; yes thankfully we are rid of one less evil creature and hopefully those families who lost loved ones can feel like they have been served a bit of justice, but he had a loyal group of followers who are just as vengeful as he was and will want to cause as much devastation as he did. However, I live in the hope that they grow bored of spreading such hatred and causing such misery and that maybe one day we can all live in a happy peaceful world where we all get along, skip around holding hands and making daisy chains… but not with Taylor Swift. I hate her.

Nat told me to end the blog on this note (and I quote) "Osama Bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan.. who says you can't take your bin out on a bank holiday?"

Oh and while I'm at it; news just in re: Bin Laden's death. Elton John to record tribute song 'Sandals in the Bin'.

I'm done, I'm off to look at shoes and read Heat magazine before my brain erupts.