Mr. Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, or, as he is known short-hand in the West, Osama, was finally killed after a 10 year man-hunt by the US and other allied governments. So what happens now? The US has lost its number one excuse that it used in recent times when invading Arab Nations. Will the imperialism end? I doubt it - for several reasons.
First of all, the USA government has skillfully switched the focus of its attacks from those responsible for the 9/11 attacks to terrorist groups, "rogue states", and dictators. We are no longer punishing those who attacked us, but just engaging in a crusade to "fix the world" and purge it of "evil". Secondly, it is simply not in the interest of the US and Western European ruling elite to give up their aggressive foreign policy. War is the health of the state, as we libertarians say. During times of war, nationalism and patriotism are given a push and all those who oppose wars can be simply branded as hippies or traitors. The government can dismiss most of its critics in a time of war. Wars are pragmatic. Anyone who has read Machiavelli's The Prince knows about this - the notion is hundreds of years old!
Furthermore I don't expect bin Laden's death to be a deterrent for torrorist. If anything, we have just created another martyr. But that's not saying much - the US army creates martyr everyday. Just a few days back NATO (i.e. the US and its puppet states) killed the civilian son of Muammar Gaddafi and the dictator's three grandchildren. None of these attacks make anyone safer. I agree killing bin Laden was a good idea, but the way it was done (after years and years of waiting) certainly made the US look like a laughingstock. It proves that terrorist organizations and guerilla groups which have support among local populations always have an upperhand over large lumbering nation states.
So, at the risk of repeating myself - Osama is dead, now what?
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This whole death is quite a weird thing. When they trialled Sadam, they put all on TV. In this case we have nothing, no photos, no videos. This all seems really weird and suspicious. The US made it its 'life-goal' to kill this man (whom they trained themselves) and all that we get, is this dude in the white-house telling us that he is dead.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there was no other safe sentence to be given to Osama, but death, keeping him alive was to risky, but you are right that this will change nothing, to be fair, almost no-one remembered him.
And the NATO strike on Gaddafi's family is so disgusting...
And to add some conspiracy theory:
http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/binladen-mayfirst/
I actually don't follow conspiracy theories (at least most of them, after all each one has to be evaluated by itself). For example I don't believe that there was any assassination when the President of Poland was killed last year (clearly because of pilot error), and I don't believe the WTC was an "inside job" by the Bush administration (clearly it was terrorists). But I am an idealist - preserving human life and dignity must be the priority at all times. This is why I absolutely despise attacks by the US and NATO which, even when they target terrorists, kill thousands of civilians over time. I am starting to get tired of the excuse "this is war, people die in war and it's very sad". If it's very sad, stop doing it. The USA has killed hundreds of times more civilians throughout the world than the number that died on that tragic 9/11 day. I fully support any retaliation against terrorists, but invading Iraq, Afghanistan, or Libya has nothing to do with it. And supporting Isreal certainly doesn't have anything to do with it either.
ReplyDeleteFor example on a Ayn Rand post you say:
ReplyDelete"I stand for freedom.
I stand for reason.
I stand for life."
I think this indiscriminate assasination means nobody is longer free or secure in life and blindly accepting the CIA word for fact does blindly accepting it suggest reason.
Michael, I think you are essentially correct. In the world ruled by states and government agencies, however, it is very difficult to reach any sort of justice at all. State-dealt justice is suspect from the very moment it "is done" because from what I see there is very little justice in any state in this world.
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