A good friend from my AP Government class helped me spin up an interesting conspiracy: Obama knew for months and waited on this operation to kill Osama when the political opportunity was right. "Oh, the poll numbers are down? Launch operation 'Best thing we're ever going to do overseas'. Don't forget the DNA samples, or they'll be ripping us down for weeks."
It' hard for me to honestly believe he's dead. Or for that matter, that it might really be his body. Skepticism runs high these days, and let's just hope that the death of a martyr is not the death of hope.
For the families of those who lost their lives to Al-Qaeda, I'm sure that they've been waiting a long time for justice to be served. But I can also understand why many of them weren't jumping for joy in the streets like those at Ground Zero, waving American flags and singing the anthem. I don't know. Maybe they were.
And in that lies justice. Or is it revenge?
Revenge is like a ghost. It takes over every man it touches. Its thirst cannot be quenched until the last man standing has fallen.And quite the revenge we've gotten. It's only cost us the lives of several thousand U.S. soldiers and a few trillion dollars. Nothing that couldn't have been better used.
-Vladimir Makarov, Modern Warfare 2
Truth is, we always find it easy to associate our hate and anger towards one person. It give us an image to despise, a name to curse.
But we don't ever seem to look beyond a person's actions. We don't understand their motivations. We don't sympathize with the situations that make a rapist kill several young teenagers, or a terrorist from blowing up a school.
We fear understanding these things. We find it so repulsive to look from another person's perspective because it is much, much easier to give into the societal cues of hate and xenophobia.
The blame is easy to place, but the understanding is hard. And if we can't understand our faults and what they were shaped from, how could we possibly be able to fix them? How could we possibly try and prevent evil like this in the future?
I'm not a psychologist, so I'll simply say this:
There are many ways to resolve disputes. Revenge is not one of them.
I too am feeling a bit hollow about all this. The word "justice" does not enter into my mind at all just because OBL is dead. I didn't lose any family members in 9/11 or the wars that followed, and if anybody who did feels like his death brings some "justice," OK. But I just don't get it. Already people are talking about "Obama just got re-elected," as if the most important thing is the political point-scoring. OBL alive and offline, OBL dead...what's really different? I can't see it.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that is different is the validation we need in a country that doesn't know what it's been doing for ten years. It's a sign of progress, a sign that the people who have died, the money we've spent, meant SOMETHING, ANYTHING.
ReplyDeleteWait, so at this "sign of validation," we suddenly realize what we've been doing for ten years? NOW we get meaning, when this one guy--who was already a ghost--takes two shells to the dome? The implication I take from your comment is that now we can expect to have some catharsis and move ON...but like Mr. Greenwald here, I think what's more likely is more of the last ten blind years:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/05/02/bin_laden
Do I sound too terrible? Maybe so.
America's never going to move on. The wars will continue, the death of leaders will be advertised.
ReplyDeleteThing is, when a country fights a war, they fight it with the intent of swift action and forethought. They know exactly what to do, how to do it, and when to come home. They know very clearly why and for what they fight for.
This war that you've lived through, a war I grew up with is not one of these wars. It has the American trademark of showing off the biggest gun with the best courage. We still debate why we're fighting and whether or not the cause is worth it.
You don't fight a battle when you question your own motives.
America is a bully. It's a young crybaby that just happened to be build the biggest weapon on the playground.
Osama's death is giving the bully his lollipop. It's giving him a good laugh. When we go home and come back the next morning, nothing has changed.
America is still a bully. It'll pick the fights. When it can't win, the stubbornness will kick in.
Sometimes, I really think it's that simple.