Even if we were justified in using force to kill Osama bin Laden and his death brings a sense of \u201cclosure\u201d\u009d to the victims of the 9\/11 attacks, his death has not broken the cycle of violence. We have already seen that 80 people in Pakistan have been killed as an act of \u201crevenge\u201d\u009d for bin Laden\u2019s death. Will someone avenge those 80 deaths, too? And then who will avenge the avengers? Will anyone be marked as Cain so that he may not be killed in revenge?<\/p>\n
As has been so often said, the Christian duty to love is not a feeling, but can be understood as an act of fulfilling our responsibilities to God and our neighbor. Augustine believed that taking someone\u2019s life to defend the innocent in order to preserve a \u201cprovisional and earthly peace\u201d\u009d could be understood as a paradoxical act of love. But he also understood these responsibilities of political authority to be a tragic necessity, borne from the responsibility that comes with trying to preserve a common life in the face of evil.<\/p>\n
Those who render this provisional and earthly judgment, Augustine says, do so \u201cwith tears,\u201d\u009d knowing that the death of one\u2019s fellows can never be something to celebrate. \u201cAs I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live\u201d\u009d (Ezek. 33:11).<\/p>\n