I was not dancin in the streets ecstatic, but I was pleased enough to high five and grin. As the days passed since I heard, it seems a weight has lifted off of me. The sorrow and grief from 9/11 ran deeper than I thought I guess. America got a bit of closure and a much needed boost to our morale. Suddenly we resembled our old selves again, if only for a few days.
And how was news of Bin Laden's death received in the Islamic world? At first like us, not much other than being stunned. I think the entire world was caught way off guard by the audacity and daring of a US raid into the heart of Pakistan. No immediate outrage, just muffled half hearted complaints at first from his supporters. Al Qaeda had been sucker punched.........hard. And that pleased me immensely.
What pleased me the most however, was the reaction from most of mainstream Islam. Instead of the predicted outrage, I have the distinct impression a majority of the Muslim world is happy that Osama Bin Laden is dead. Yes, he will always be a hero to the fringe lunatics who use terror to make their points. But like I always knew, the average Joe Muslim is just like me, they just want to be allowed to carry on with their lives peacefully. Like me, they hate that fringe voices have hijacked their culture and use it in all the wrong ways. Maybe now the stupid, petty hatred many Americans have for any Muslim will ease up.
And then this morning I read an article about the outrage of one of Bin Laden's sons. Why was he not captured alive and given a fair trial? His burial at sea was a purposeful slight to Islam. His wives should be released immediately. and so it went, blah, blah, blah. Omar, his son, thought that his father should have been afforded the same right to trial as Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
Dude, those guys were nasty actors for sure, but they were leaders of real countries that at least pretended to follow real laws. Your dad was a thug without a country and deserved to be shot down like a mad dog. He received much more respect than I would have given him.
Which brings me to our president. My internal polls regarding Barack Obama had been inching down these past few months as I watched him give ground to the ever increasing domestic stupidity coming at him from the Right. But his ballsy call to go through with this mission just raised him back up in my eyes. There is definitely steel in this man's backbone. It appears to be high grade spring steel.
Well done, Mr President.
And to Seal Team 6 and all the military and intelligence people involved..... Excellent job guys. Just excellent.
Later.........................................
6 comments:
Well, Mike, I still think President Obama is way, way off base, almost in an alternate reality, when it comes to economic policy. (You probably knew that already. And... oh wait... checking... yes, I see your mileage still varies. :) But I agree that he hit a home run into the parking lot by approving this raid into Pakistan. I especially enjoyed hearing that the president himself insisted that the military team be large and numerous enough to fend off any resistance from the Pakistani military or the ISI. Heh heh! That, more than anything, is ballsy.
Gotta disagree with you about the not deserving a trial business. First, everytime we assassinate someone instead of putting the thug in a courtroom, we're endorsing violence and vigilantism and saying, yes, we really did always want to emulate the Soviets and the KGB. Second, there's nothing quite like being seen doing a perp walk in an orange jumpsuit to demystify a would-be leader. Third, given how tight the bin Ladns were (and are) with the Saudi royal family, I'm suspicious of anything that prevented Osama from spilling his guts about where his money had been coming from for the past 17 years -- he supposedly got cut off financially back in '94, so whose payroll was he on?
I have mixed feelings about this. Killing should always be a last resort, just like war should be a last resort. aWol stopped looking for Osama because he needed a Big Bad Bogeyman to scare the shit out of the sheeple. I'm glad that Obama renewed the effort to go after Osama and did in the end get him. Would have prefered he was captured and put on trial for his numerous crimes.
Of course those on the right would have been scared shitless and refused to allow a court trail to be held on US soil!!! Just like the bullshit arguments against trying those at Gitmo in New York city. But wouldn't it have been fun to watch those big, bad SISSYHAWKS pissing themselves while trying to come up with reasons not to try him here!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm with you Crum. Bin Laden didn't deserve any more respect than any other muderous criminal. Simply exterminating him and moving on keeps him, and others like him, at the level of vermin where they belong. Killing him is not worthy of celebration, or even gloating. We have far more dangerous and pressing enemies to deal with, like the predatory, capitalist greed that is destroying our country from within.
Putting vermin on trail is a waste of money and I don't buy that not doing so makes us any less soulless.
Piss souls off and you get what you asked for. They treated his body with more respect than I would have.
El Cerdo Ignatius - Obama may indeed be way off base, but at least he is still in this dimension. I am beginning to wonder what alternative reality many of the Right hail from - ;). That he was willing to field a force large enough to defend the mission took the decision to a new level of gutsy.
Nan - Your points are well taken and I did consider the trial factor. But we have been fighting these yahoos for years from a western world view of ethics, fairplay, and our notion of decency. It has not worked. They respect nothing but force. We need to sink to their level and fight as they do. Small clandestine missions should have been utilized from the get go, not the billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of men, and years of effort we have wasted to this point. The time for fairplay and the rule of law comes after an enemy has been defeated. In my opinion, killing him was the strategically correct thing to do.
Kulkiri - Certainly killing should be a last resort. But when the enemy uses killing as their first resort, what do you do?
You point up the very reason it made no sense to bring him to the US to stand trial - Politics. The process would have become mired in partisan bullshit and in the meantime, Bin Laden would continue to be a rallying point, a beacon of evil light for his low life followers to build support from. It would have taken years and even though I would rather he rot in jail, killing him gave us some serious closure.
Mr Charleston - Absolutely. Like a bad horror movie, when the boogieman is killed, Life begins to return to normal.
BBC - Bin Laden reaped what he sowed. I have no problem with my soul. Actually I think it feels better now.
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