Apologies for vanishing. Perfect storm of shit got real. Aaaaanyway. On to the purpose of this post.
Ding Dong! The Witch is dead eh? Which Witch? Why the Great American Boogeyman Osama Bin Laden. Now, don't get me wrong I had the same gut gleeful reaction as the rest of my people when I heard the news, sort of a fuck-yeah-we-got-im with a bit of that'll-teach-him and a dash of relief.
Why relief? I'm not sure, granted he was a monster but he didn't do anything to me specifically. I never got a note in the mail or an email saying, hey Ash, we're coming for you. Then again I was a member of the United States military, a woman with an education and a mouth, and a non-Muslim so I don't think we'd've been pals even discounting the wholesale slaughter of three thousand or so innocent human beings. He was a monster, I think we can agree on that.
But, compared to the weird glee when we captured Hussein (as a friend rightly pointed out my experience was likely amplified as I was on a U.S. base overseas at the time but I think the comparison still stands) this feels ...hollow. Yes, we killed the son-of-a-bitch, yes he deserved it but what now?
When we got Hussein there was a series of events and then an execution. It was drawn out for three years, I don't think anyone in the U.S. didn't see the photo of a hairy filthy Hussein freshly dragged from his hole or the photos of his execution.
Maybe it's a poor comparison as realistically speaking there was no fucking way Bin Laden would ever be captured, held for trial, tried, executed, and buried. Security concerns just couldn't justify the risk to life and limb. Hussein was largely hated and the security to keep his evil ass 'safe' until the state could execute him was some serious shit.
And clearly the expense and effort to attempt to keep the fucker under wraps just to have him become an even more public martyr than now would've been prohibitive. I'm not complaining that he didn't get a trial or a court though maybe it's a bit hypocritical of me not to. No, I get the need to slice his cancer out of our world. I do. But it still seems...anticlimactic maybe?
According to Wikipedia this is how the death of the most wanted man for nearly a decade went down (wikipedia tends to be more neutral than other sources, at least in my experience and opinion):
On May 1, 2011 in Washington, D.C. (May 2, Pakistan Standard Time), U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden was killed by "a small team of Americans" acting under Obama's direct orders, in a covert operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, about 50 km (31 mi) north of Islamabad. The Telegraph newspaper identified the compound's specific location on Google maps. According to U.S. officials a team of 20–25 US Navy SEALs under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command and working with the CIA stormed bin Laden's compound in two helicopters. Bin Laden and those with him were killed during a firefight in which U.S. forces experienced no injuries or casualties. According to one US official the attack was carried out without the knowledge or consent of the Pakistani authorities. In Pakistan some
people were reported to be shocked at the unauthorized incursion by US armed forces. The site is a few miles from the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul. In his broadcast announcement President Obama said that U.S. forces "took care to avoid civilian casualties."Details soon emerged that three men and one woman were killed along with Bin Laden, the woman being killed when she was “used as a shield by a male combatant”. DNA from bin Laden's body, compared with DNA samples on record from his dead sister, confirmed bin Laden's identity. The body was recovered by the US military and was in its custody until, according to one US official, his body was buried at sea according to Islamic traditions. One U.S. official stated that "finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult." U.S State Department issued a "Worldwide caution" for Americans following Bin Laden's death and U.S Diplomatic facilities everywhere were placed on high alert, a senior U.S official said. Crowds gathered outside the White House and in New York City's Times Square to celebrate Bin Laden's death.
Now, the idea of Pakistan, a nation with a pervasive secret police/security presence, somehow not knowing that the Great American Boogeyman was living within such a secure and sensitive area in a frigging compound is mildly ridiculous. I can't say I'm surprised but like most of us I think a disappointed sigh and some annoyed tongue clicking and head shaking is certainly in order. I imagine the awkwardness of receiving a phone call from the most powerful man in the world that states basically, "Hey shit heads, we got you and your little dog too". Someone's face is red.
Back to the point, the GAB is dead, ding dong. Now what? Now that we've shot our national load in one night of glee - not to disparage or question the celebrants in D.C. and New York, particularly New York but what now? We're still mired in 2 wars not counting whatever the fuck we're doing in Libya, we're still mired in a recession - I don't give a fuck what Wall Street and the Fed say until myself and my friends who are also unemployed have jobs with livable wages and college grads can actually get hired a year out of school we're in a goddamned recession - and we're still facing a more divided political system than I've ever seen (in my entire 27 years and some six months). So, what, now?
If we'd killed the GAB years ago it might've done some good, admittedly the manner of death and disposal smacks of mitigating backlash - an impossible thing to eliminate- but so what? The extremists are still going to come after us and Al-Qaeda is still going to be a threat.
It just seems... odd, non-plussed, dull, and worn now. Adding to the surrealism (for me at least) are the large number of people celebrating that were children when the attacks initially occurred. Hell, I wasn't even 18 when they happened although I'd enlisted in the USAF the summer before. Maybe it's the combination of realizing I'm pushing thirty combined with a bit of a generation gap, after all I had a life where Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, IUDs and other post 9/11 terms were utterly foreign and they haven't.
So in the end maybe it's just me but waiting ten years for impersonal vengeance against a nebulous threat to me personally is not a very tasty dish after all. I hope the survivors and families of the 9/11 victims and all the people we've lost since get some satisfaction from the death of Bin Laden.
Update: This vid popped up on my fb page as a few friends had posted it. It's pretty damn funny so in an effort to inject some levity into this reasonably somber post I'm reposting it here. Enjoy!
As always thank you for reading and feel free to comment!
Ding Dong! The Witch is dead eh? Which Witch? Why the Great American Boogeyman Osama Bin Laden. Now, don't get me wrong I had the same gut gleeful reaction as the rest of my people when I heard the news, sort of a fuck-yeah-we-got-im with a bit of that'll-teach-him and a dash of relief.
Why relief? I'm not sure, granted he was a monster but he didn't do anything to me specifically. I never got a note in the mail or an email saying, hey Ash, we're coming for you. Then again I was a member of the United States military, a woman with an education and a mouth, and a non-Muslim so I don't think we'd've been pals even discounting the wholesale slaughter of three thousand or so innocent human beings. He was a monster, I think we can agree on that.
But, compared to the weird glee when we captured Hussein (as a friend rightly pointed out my experience was likely amplified as I was on a U.S. base overseas at the time but I think the comparison still stands) this feels ...hollow. Yes, we killed the son-of-a-bitch, yes he deserved it but what now?
Maybe it's a poor comparison as realistically speaking there was no fucking way Bin Laden would ever be captured, held for trial, tried, executed, and buried. Security concerns just couldn't justify the risk to life and limb. Hussein was largely hated and the security to keep his evil ass 'safe' until the state could execute him was some serious shit.
And clearly the expense and effort to attempt to keep the fucker under wraps just to have him become an even more public martyr than now would've been prohibitive. I'm not complaining that he didn't get a trial or a court though maybe it's a bit hypocritical of me not to. No, I get the need to slice his cancer out of our world. I do. But it still seems...anticlimactic maybe?
According to Wikipedia this is how the death of the most wanted man for nearly a decade went down (wikipedia tends to be more neutral than other sources, at least in my experience and opinion):
 |
people were reported to be shocked at the unauthorized incursion by US armed forces. The site is a few miles from the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul. In his broadcast announcement President Obama said that U.S. forces "took care to avoid civilian casualties."Details soon emerged that three men and one woman were killed along with Bin Laden, the woman being killed when she was “used as a shield by a male combatant”. DNA from bin Laden's body, compared with DNA samples on record from his dead sister, confirmed bin Laden's identity. The body was recovered by the US military and was in its custody until, according to one US official, his body was buried at sea according to Islamic traditions. One U.S. official stated that "finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult." U.S State Department issued a "Worldwide caution" for Americans following Bin Laden's death and U.S Diplomatic facilities everywhere were placed on high alert, a senior U.S official said. Crowds gathered outside the White House and in New York City's Times Square to celebrate Bin Laden's death.
 |
| Wonder if Obama was tempted to say mission accomplished? |
Back to the point, the GAB is dead, ding dong. Now what? Now that we've shot our national load in one night of glee - not to disparage or question the celebrants in D.C. and New York, particularly New York but what now? We're still mired in 2 wars not counting whatever the fuck we're doing in Libya, we're still mired in a recession - I don't give a fuck what Wall Street and the Fed say until myself and my friends who are also unemployed have jobs with livable wages and college grads can actually get hired a year out of school we're in a goddamned recession - and we're still facing a more divided political system than I've ever seen (in my entire 27 years and some six months). So, what, now?
It just seems... odd, non-plussed, dull, and worn now. Adding to the surrealism (for me at least) are the large number of people celebrating that were children when the attacks initially occurred. Hell, I wasn't even 18 when they happened although I'd enlisted in the USAF the summer before. Maybe it's the combination of realizing I'm pushing thirty combined with a bit of a generation gap, after all I had a life where Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, IUDs and other post 9/11 terms were utterly foreign and they haven't.
So in the end maybe it's just me but waiting ten years for impersonal vengeance against a nebulous threat to me personally is not a very tasty dish after all. I hope the survivors and families of the 9/11 victims and all the people we've lost since get some satisfaction from the death of Bin Laden.
EUpdate: This vid popped up on my fb page as a few friends had posted it. It's pretty damn funny so in an effort to inject some levity into this reasonably somber post I'm reposting it here. Enjoy!
As always thank you for reading and feel free to comment!
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