Monday, May 2, 2011

Osama Bin Laden is dead

I think this image sums up the last couple of years quite nicely:

http://i.imgur.com/KDssc.jpg

OBL's death may be largely symbolic, but the symbolism is powerful. The thugs that are Al-Qaeda have stolen the focus for too many years from the billions of peaceful Muslims in the world. If nothing else, I'm hoping his death will undo that supreme injustice.

3 comments:

Jacob S. said...

It's an open secret now that I have a man-crush on Glenn Greenwald, who I think is the very best liberal columnist out there.

His point is that this really changes nothing as far as the "war on terror" goes. The fact that Americans were out in joyous rallies and chanting USA! USA! in response to this just goes to show, once again, how we fetishize violence and Osama's death will likely lead to yet more violence as we start feel invincible again and as politicians realize that violence is the way to rally the masses.

I don't want to be "that guy" that is a contrarian just to be an ass, and I get the happy response on a certain level, but I also think it's time we start moving away from this bloodlust to solve our national problems.

Also, that picture made me laugh. Awesome.

Shawn O. said...

I'm going to side with Jacob on this one - the cheering for a killing is pretty messed up. Look I get that he was one bad dude, up there with Hitler according to Time magazine, I just don't like the devolution of our patriots barbarism. We might as well pull out our guns, dance in a circle, and shoot a few shots into the air.

Some of the descriptions are what irks me, "It looks like him, covered in blood with a hole in his head".

Do we really need to see that for confirmation that he is dead?

Andrew said...

I agree with both of you. The operation was carried out in a professional manner, and I'm pleased with the results. However, there's no need to parade around bloody images, or to think that this somehow ends terrorism. Then again, the delusion that the terrorists were coming en masse to take over America was irrational to begin with, so it's fitting that OBL's death would be outsized in a similarly irrational way.