After listening to commentary for 2 days, hearing about celebratory riots in the city and feeling altogether uncomfortable with the entire reactionary scene to Osama bin Laden's death, I feel compelled to write on it.
I read an article in the New York Times this morning about many people in the New York area who had family killed on 9/11, and how celebratory they were that the murderer who plotted against their civilian family members is now dead. They rejoiced and felt closure. In some ways, I can not imagine the pain that they have gone through, or the vindication they must feel, having myself never lost a friend of family member to the hand of another. And I do understand that Osama bin Laden has been Public Enemy #1 for years and years, and there was no other option (for our national security sake) than to kill him. And I agree with that. And I commend the entire Intelligence Establishment (CIA, FBI, Military Intelligence, Pentagon and other organizations) for finding bin Laden. I'm know that it was no easy feat (considering it took 10 years) to find him and kill him, and know that it must have taken efforts by Pakistani intelligence and forces as well as US forces.
I will also say that I wouldn't expect more of most people than to celebrate bin Laden's death. I don't think too highly of the "American public" (whoever is actually represented in that!), and think of the general citizen as pretty uninformed. People are not all that insightful, or reflective, and so therefore I understand how they might see this death as revenge. They are unable to see past the ends of their own noses (or outside of the borders of our own country), to understand a larger context of this event.
So let me give it to you, then. The larger context of this event, that is.
First of all, Osama bin Laden's death does not mean the end of al Qaeda, of terrorism in general, or anti-American sentiment throughout the world. Yes he was a figure in the extremist world and had influence, money and clout-but he is still only one man. In addition, many think that this death will cause reactionary attacks. I am skeptical of the logic that brings us to that conclusion, but that is another post entirely.
Second of all-and most importantly-I want people to understand that looking at the big picture, and I'm talking biiiiig picture, like as big as it gets. We all have to inhabit this Earth together, for an indefinite amount of time forward. Rejoicing in the death of another is not only counterproductive to our own survival. We
In addition, are we so disconnected that we have forgotten our humanity? The grim fact is that yes, Osama bin Laden had to die as part of our "War Against Terror" (as utterly non-descript that "war" is). But we should not celebrate that fact. We should acknowledge that it is the reality that we live in that the world is not at peace-although we should try to get there, and STAT. This is not a crusade and we are not entering a Clash of Civilizations, even if Samuel P. Huntington says we are. We are all citizens of a global community and our goal here is to further the human race, not destroy it.
Professor Tristan Borer of Connecticut College, posted a poignant quote via facebook yesterday, that successfully articulates the irony I am struggling to articulate:
I am distraught to think that this quote falls on deaf ears. The reason why American so desperately hated Osama bin Laden is because he was exactly what this quote details-a killer who joyfully celebrated killing. In order that we maintain our humanity and in order to continue striving towards a more peaceful world, we
"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind"- Gandhi
I think you make some good points, and I too felt a little queasy watching the GW students take their party from the bar to the White House lawn. It is important that we do not turn this into a national holiday or give anyone cause to hate us. We’re the good guys, and we should act like it. In most cases celebrating a death, even the death of a killer, is wrong.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think you overlook/underestimate a couple of factors. First is bin Laden’s role as a symbol. Al Qaeda will undoubtedly continue without his leadership, and he has probably played little to no operational role since 2001, but he had deliberately styled himself as the figurehead and symbol of the organization, crafting its message and mission around his own personal history and vendetta, purposely conflating his identity with that of his organization. In many ways Al Qaeda is a cult (one that has franchised itself, to be sure, but a cult nonetheless) that was built on bin Laden’s charisma. And cults built on charisma tend to crumble once that force of personality is removed.
Second and more important is the confidence boost this gives the United States. To state the obvious, things are going pretty poorly in the good ole U.S. of A. We’re still fighting our way out of the 2008 recession almost 3 years on, we’re staring structural unemployment in the face, our debt is rising to the point that it makes government spending to remedy these problems harder, we haven’t been able to do anything as a country to address the fact that we’re slowly killing our own planet, our education system is just plain bad, and we’re fighting three wars at once (whether we’d like to call them that or not). All those problems seem a little less bad today. The notion that you can’t mess with America and get away with it is good not only because Ayman al-Zawahiri sleeps a little less soundly tonight, not only because anybody planning something is more likely to think twice, but because, until Sunday night, we had stopped believing it.
Should the other cells pretend to be sad when a cancer cell dies?