Were the Germans Not Watching TV on 9-11?

You want judicial activism? Lemme tell you 'bout some jooo-dish-el activism: a judge in Germany has filed a criminal complaint against Angela Merkel that could see her spend time in jail. Why? She said she was glad that OBL got whacked. Yep, just saying she's glad he's sleeping with the fishes is getting her in trouble with a nation where over half the population doesn't seem to care that the world's most wanted terrorist is now dead.

Schadenfreude, the enjoyment of others' suffering, may be a famously German concept, but it is apparently not a feeling that many Germans aspire to. The political and public fallout following Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement on Monday that she was "glad" Osama bin Laden had been killed was among the most hotly debated topics in the German media this week.

Politicians, including those within her own center-right coalition, said that no death was cause for celebration, and reproved the remark as un-Christian and vengeful.
But Hamburg judge Heinz Uthmann went even further. He alleges that the chancellor's statement was nothing short of illegal, and filed a criminal complaint against Merkel midweek, the daily Hamburger Morgenpost reported Friday.

"I am a law-abiding citizen and as a judge, sworn to justice and law," the 54-year-old told the paper, adding that Merkel's words were "tacky and undignified."

In his two-page document, Uthmann, a judge for 21 years, cites section 140 of the German Criminal Code, which forbids the "rewarding and approving" of crimes. In this case, Merkel endorsed a "homicide," Uthmann claimed. The violation is punishable by up to three years' imprisonment or a fine.

"For the daughter of a Christian pastor, the comment is astonishing and at odds with the values of human dignity, charity and the rule of law," Uthmann told the newspaper.

The real issue here is, of course, how the Germans view the killing of OBL. He attacked us; we killed him. The Germans are trying to say that killing OBL was a "homicide". Really? If I recall, NATO as a whole invoked Article 5 of the charter when 9-11 hit. If we're responding to an attack then it's because said attack was considered an act of war, right? If it's an act of war, how is decapitating enemy C2 considered criminal? Would it be less criminal if we just JDAM'ed his ass? What if we carpet-bombed the entire town just to make sure he didn't get away? What, exactly, is the crime here, when the response to his attack was to invoke a mutual defense treaty against the attack?

By: Brant