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LET'S PARTY!!! WHOOO!
I don't really get it. Someone's gonna need to explain it to me. We spend something like $400 billion in Afghanistan, lose a little over 2,000 soldiers, kill about 20,000 Afghani people and we're celebrating that, whew, what a relief, we killed some 54-year-old religious nutbag?
This is not a time for celebration. This is time for solemn reflection on what we've lost and a reevaluation of if, in fact, this was worth it. What message did we send to al Qaeda with this? A former CIA agent said back in 2010 al Qaeda is stronger now than before 9-11. Whatever lesson we think we're teaching al Qaeda might be lost behind the lines of new recruits streaming in.
But what really gets to me is all those images of people partying in DC and NYC like someone's death is something to celebrate. Our nation ended a life last night, and I'm hard-pressed to understand why that's worth celebrating. I mean, I can understand why people want to celebrate. We've been at war for 10 years, spending billions while a huge portion of us can barely afford medicine and rather than progress, we've just seen the progressive decay of both countries we invaded under corrupt and ineffectual governments. We need something to celebrate, just like we needed something to celebrate when Bush pulled one of these:
But that doesn't make it right.
Death is terrible. It is the end of us, it is where we become powerless and are reduced to little more than the wood, earth and stone we regard as tools. Our agency is gone and everything that makes us, us has vanished and will never return. Osama was not a good person, but he was a human being. And that we can celebrate having put at end to his being human just shows that something's gone wrong in these ten years. Something that resulted in the kill teams in Afghanistan. The Abu Ghraib torture in Iraq. The My Lai massacre in Vietnam. The Japanese internment camps on our own soil.
War is unnatural. It is an abomination. And it causes what we're seeing all around us. Poverty, mental illness, injury, death. And after 10 years, it's taken a toll on our psyche as a nation. So here we are. Celebrating someone dying.
We lost this war a while ago. Now I'm just wondering else what else we're going to lose.
This isn't about the death of Bin Laden. Not entirely anyway. This is about Obama securing the 2012 Presidency. And I believe he just did.
ReplyDeleteAfter countless draw backs from the administration, whether due to bad practices or unforeseen events, he needed to give the people something to celebrate.
Government deficit is still $1.5 trillion. Gas prices are $4/ gallon and up. The country is still involved in 2 1/2 wars. Yet people are hailing Obama for "one of the greatest days of our nation"
Don't get me wrong, Its not like I'm blaming the Obama administration with everything going wrong in the world or even this country, but people have the tendency to lay fault on (or hail)a key figure, just like how Osama Bin Laden is seen as the symbol for Al-Qaida, even though his death does not, by any means, end their threat.
This whole operation seems ambiguous to me anyway. I mean, after 10 years of chasing the guy, and scores of people dead, whether American soldiers or Afghani civilians, billions of dollars spent, all we get is "Bin Laden is dead and buried at sea"?! Seriously?
And then you get this:
"In other words, the killing of Osama Bin Laden did not take place in a hail of bombs and bullets, or after a shoot-out involving hundreds of troops. It was the result of careful preparation, followed by the competent execution of a plan. We missed him during the chaotic storming of Tora Bora. We caught him while he was at home in bed. Apparently the whole operation took 40 minutes, and no Americans were killed" - Anne Applebaum, Slate
Bin Laden might have been killed yesterday, 5 years ago, or not at all. All I know is his death announcement last night could not have been timed any better.
I totally agree, Ms. Gawish. It's all just a show, hopefully strengthening Obama's bid. In the end, all US policy has done is played into al Qaeda's hands. They're stronger and more widespread than ever now and they actually admitted what their strategy is is to drain our economy until we are a weak nation.
ReplyDeleteThey managed to initiate two wars. I'd say this isn't much of a milestone of anything.