Soon, nearly everyone will have weighed in on Osama bin Laden's death, what it means for the War on Terror, whether we are safer as a result, or should steel ourselves for retaliation. We will revisit the folly of our invasion of Iraq, as well as the purpose of our protracted mission in Afghanistan.
Though I don't know enough to declaim authoritatively on these subjects, I do know that I don't relish the prospect of my daughter growing up in a society where people celebrate a man's death in the streets just as they do a victory of their favorite baseball team -- and as bin Laden's supporters did when the twin towers fell.
Justice has been done, according to President Obama, a former professor of law and an unusually reflective man, from whom one might have expected a more thoughtful conception of justice. But he is in full swing as commander-in-chief of the largest military-industrial complex the world has ever known, and about to run for re-election. His words were over-determined, written into the script before he took the stage.
This morning, upon hearing that U.S. forces had killed bin Laden, my twelve-year-old daughter said, "Oh, so now they will want to come and kill more of us."
This sobering thought brought to mind the evening of 9/11, when, on our way home from dinner, passing our local fire station, the truck was pulling in under crepuscular light, covered in pale gray ash, the men silent, weary, spent. People in the street, only dimly aware of one another a moment before, all suddenly stopped, coalesced, and began to applaud; someone asked "Did everyone make it back?" Clapping ceased, then, the sad reply, "We lost two."
How much more we have lost since then, how many lives, dollars, opportunities.
Bin Laden's death presents a new opportunity. In our response we can revel in the satisfaction of revenge -- or we can decide to end the cycle of killing and demand a different approach from our government, which is, after all, supposed to be of, by, and for the people.
Just one person, like everyone I contain multitudes. I am a Jew, well acquainted with the anguish of the Holocaust, nevertheless disturbed when Israel violates the rights of Palestinians. I am half-Japanese, endowed with familial memories of the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the likes of which I hope we will never see again. I am an American (and a New Yorker), appalled as anyone by the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But above all, I am a human being, a citizen of a world imperiled on many fronts, not least by the violence our species inflicts upon it and ourselves.
Lest we forget, bin Laden too was a human being, born helpless like the rest of us, coddled by his mother, traumatized by the sudden death of his father when he was a boy of ten. Many have described him as considerate, gentle, and generous. Though wealthy, he lived modestly, sleeping with his men on the floor. Americans and bin Laden fought on the same side against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Indeed, the complex at Tora Bora where al Qaeda members later hid had been created with C.I.A. help as a base for fighting the Soviets. Even bin Laden, then training volunteers for the mujahedeen, acknowledged, "The weapons were supplied by the Americans, the money by the Saudis."
How many of us have tried to understand the evolution of his grievances against the United States -- how a soft-spoken, mild-mannered boy became a mastermind of terror?
So much easier to demonize, oversimplify, and play into bin Laden's hands by sowing our own brand of terror, otherwise known as American exceptionalism, which permits torture and pre-emptive war when it serves our purposes, then hopes to win the future without facing the past, unwilling to hold anyone accountable for the disgraceful departures from our purportedly democratic values.
Easier in the short run -- and a guarantee of more terror in the long run.
Imagine if we had responded differently: To take one consequential example, for a fraction of the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan we could have built enough schools to educate all the children there, and rebuilt our own crumbling schools. Instead of resentment of our military presence and uncounted corpses, we might actually receive flowers of gratitude from Iraqis and Afghanis alike. Instead of celebration over the death of our enemy, we could be sharing sympathetic joy in our harmonious co-existence.
While we can't undo the last decade, the future is still ours to be won -- not as Americans, but as humans -- if only we have the collective will.
In addition to a victory for America and for those who lost loved ones on 9/11, George W. Bush called bin Laden's death "a victory for people who seek peace around the world". Let us make it so.
We were collectively appalled by the dancing in the Arab streets on the evening news after 9/11. Those celebrations were a gross display of the what happens when one's enemies are routinely dehumanized. This is the moment to show that we have engaged in these battles only reluctantly and to pierce the notion that we are seeking something beyond a secure peace.
Sadly, celebrating bin Laden's death in such a vigorous manner not only trivializes the death of bin Laden but also all of deaths he caused through his terrible jihadist campaign. Chanting "USA" at baseball games, and seeking the photo of his corpse ,do not bring us closer to those we lost, nor does it make their sacrifice more important, it only devalues their loss.
-- Frederick Douglass
But the real issue today is whether this will speed our ending the invasion and occupation of Afghan--if Osama's killing leads to a political settlement and saves the lives of Americans and Afghanis and Pakistanis then it surely will have been worth while
I agree with the last part, but I disagree with the first part, which reeks of colonialism. Afghanistan was controlled by the Taliban in 2001. They would not have welcomed foreigners coming into their countries and building schools. In fact, you probably know how much danger girls still face when they attempt to go to school in many parts of Afghanistan.
I believe in peace, but I believe that colonialist actions, such as entering a country and assuming you know what is best for its people instigates violence.
Yeah, BinLaden was once a child coddled by his mother; he may have been "traumatized by the sudden death of his father when he was a boy of ten". He may have been "sleeping with his men on the floor". He also masterminded the mass murder of thousands of innocent people, in the service of his supremacist ideology. Are we supposed to "go easy on Osama" because this silver-spoon multi-millionaire "had a tough childhood?? Come oooon!! Is THIS the kind of "justice" the blogger advocates?
I really do not appreciate the kind of discourse that seems to want to shift the responsibility for 9/11 on America, for somehow causing BinLaden's "grievances". Such discourse belongs in the same garbage bin as the claim that "the Jews themselves are responsible for the Holocaust". Next, someone is going to argue that rape victims should themselves be censored for bringing it on themselves.
As for the fear of revenge ("Oh, so now they will want to come and kill more of us"), I can sympathize with a frightened 12-year-old child. But we adults can't let Mafia leaders go scott-free for fear of what their gangs might do to us in reprisal. THAT would certainly NOT be justice -- and we would only be encouraging the next criminal.
Terrorism will still be with us; it was with us before 9/11. It is what we have done to ourselves that terrifies the most... I think that is what we are hoping will end.
As to those who tried to understand how Bin Laden thought.... and what shaped his actions, everyone who tried to do so lost their jobs... both in government and in academia. Let's not forget that.
A very well presented point of view.
Your article makes a nice companion piece to one in this months Mother Jones: We Can't Handle the Truth.
We push threatening information away, we pull friendly information close. We think we are reasoning but may actually be ratyionalizing. We may think we are being scientists but are actually being lawyers.
"flowers of gratitude" is just plain ridiculous. I am against the death penalty, but his followers and much of the islamic world hate us, not because what bush did but because of our over abundance and need to insert ourselves into everyone elses buisness. If he stood trial, they would complain it was a show trial. lose/lose.
As for the comment by her daughter, tell her as long as this country is not Islamic we will always be considered infidels and attacked for it.
Even some of the commissioner's on the investigation
say clearly some people lied to them [ !!! ]
Yet the political pressure to deliver and
confirm the standard story was intense.
We're lucky to have one anyway as oddly
Bush/Cheney strongly opposed it and then
refused to be sworn to the truth.....odd huh...?
While some blogs don't want us to think
it could have been more complex, that
there simply are some important unanswered
questions [ dare I say more ], we should honor
those lost and have a new investigation, if
only because of what the 'blue ribbon'
commissioner's have admitted.
So when apparently some of the
highjacker's are somehow still alive
and living normally we should ask
some questions in this tenth year
of responding to this.
Individually, we do inconsistent and chaotic things...especially in times of stress....I think groups and governments do the same thing. However, it would be foolish to ignore the predatory nature of man, while seeking answers.
that day ?.....that would confuse the first minutes but that
still does not explain Norad's terrible performance,
in not getting close to not 1, or 2, or 3, but
4 threats.....relatively slow jets even ?!?
B 7.....a great mystery....even govt said fire
unlikely to be the cause...