Opinion: Is It Right to Celebrate the Death of an Evil Leader?
A Drone Attack Kills Osama Bin Laden’s Right-Hand Man
Other than Osama bin Laden, few are believed more responsible for the mass murder of thousands of Americans on 9/11 than his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri. He was also among the masterminds behind the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, and the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. As President Joe Biden said, “He carved a trail of murder and violence against American citizens, American service members, American diplomats and American interests.”
The importance of the killing of al-Zawahiri by a U.S. drone strike on Saturday, July 30, 2022, in Kabul, Afghanistan, was highlighted by the former acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Michael Morell, on the CBS Evening News on Monday, August 1. “This is another significant blow to those individuals who attacked us more than 20 years ago,” he said. “This is the leader of one of the two largest terrorist organizations on the planet, al-Qaida, the other being ISIS … While they don’t pose the same threat that they posed a decade ago or 20 years ago, this does take a leader off the battlefield and will, to some degree, disrupt that organization and force them to come up with new leadership.”
I suspect most Americans, like me, were inclined to rejoice over the news. As someone who lived in Manhattan on 9/11, witnessed the suffering, felt the fear, and had a friend killed and another critically injured, it’s impossible for me to be dispassionate.
But was al-Zawahiri’s killing legal? Was it morally defensible? And should we celebrate his death?
Legality of the Al-Zawahiri Killing
In considering the justification for the killing and my reaction to it, I began by looking into the legality of the killing.
Under U.S. law there should be no doubt: The Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001 specifically grants authority to the president "necessary and appropriate force" against those whom he determined "planned, authorized, committed or aided" the 9/11 attacks.
An extensive analytical report published in 2016 by the Rand Corporation titled “Clarifying the Rules for Targeted Killing,” confirms that conclusion.
However, was the drone strike against al-Zawahiri also in conformity with international law? The answer is less black and white, but it’s still yes.
First, a deadly drone attack against a man who has repeatedly killed Americans and expressed his continued intention to do should be interpreted as permissible self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
Second, the killing also fits a series of criteria to comply with international law that are listed in the Rand study. Armed conflict between al-Qaida and the U.S. has been ongoing for more than two decades, and al-Qaida is a sufficiently identifiable and organized terrorist group. Al-Zawahiri was clearly a high-value target and a hostile combatant. And, as described by the U.S. government, the drone strike did not cause harm to civilians, nor did the degree of force exceed what was needed.
Was the Killing Morally Justified?
In thinking about this question, one of my favorite poems, John Donne’s “No Man Is an Island,” came to mind:
“No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
But does the death of al-Zawahiri diminish me or any other American? No. I advisedly referred to al-Zawahiri in the title to this column as an “evil leader,” not just a leader who committed evil acts. The enormity of his actions and the suffering he caused made him evil to the core.
History provides extensive support for the righteousness of killing a tyrant, a term that can appropriately be extended to a terrorist leader. The Greeks and Romans believed killing a tyrant was justified and so did St. Thomas Aquinas, arguably the most influential of all Catholic theologians. The same is true for Martin Luther and John Calvin, the greatest leaders of the Protestant Reformation.
The modern Catholic Church has not pronounced itself definitively on tyrannicide or the killing of terrorists, but it should be justified under its guiding principles for self-defense, especially when a terrorist leader is killed pursuant to the requirements of international law set forth above. Prominent Catholic author Rev. William Saunders wrote: “Terrorism is a real evil that must be confronted and stopped. Terrorists must be identified, isolated, and brought to justice.” However, he added that if that’s impossible, “Leaders of nations may consider an act of justifiable tyrannicide as a last resort.”
Should We Celebrate Al-Zawahiri’s Death?
I’ve always felt significant ambivalence about celebrating a death, even when it involves the most evil among us. Fidel Castro caused suffering for millions, and I was glad when he finally died, but I did not join fellow Cuban Americans when they poured onto the streets of Miami’s Little Havana to rejoice over his passing in 2016.
My reaction was similar when I heard of the successful operation to kill bin Laden in 2011. Back then, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic published an article that asked if we should celebrate the al-Qaida leader’s death. The whole piece was the answer to that question from his Torah teacher, Erica Brown. In that response, she mentioned a passage from the Talmud that describes a conversation between God and the angels after the biblical drowning in the Red Sea of the Egyptian Pharaoh’s troops who were pursuing the Israelites. The Talmud says the angels wanted to sing in joy, but God said “My creatures are drowning in the sea, and you want to sing?"
Brown concludes, as I will, that “Relief is appropriate. Celebration may just cross over a spiritual line.” Still, we can hope the world is now a safer place.