OSAMA'S DEATH: HURRAY?

Last night, I heard the news that U.S. Navy Seals had killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

The first thing I thought was, how sad. Now the morons will gather together and chant "USA, USA," as if this whole thing was a stupid football game.

Sure enough, I turned on the TV and there were crowds in front of the White House and in NYC chanting, "USA, USA..."

But how many people in the USA know why Bin Laden waged this long war against us?

I actually have read two or three statements from him, published online.

Here was a man who inherited $300-million and could have done anything with his life that he wanted. He had reasons for waging war against the USA. Mostly, he wanted American troops out of the Arab peninsula.

Does that seem so horrible? Would you want your ancestral homeland occupied by foreign troops?

I agree with this quote from Michael Sheuer, former CIA analyst and the man in charge of tracking Bin Laden before 9/11:

"Bin Laden has been precise in telling America the reasons he is waging war on us. None of the reasons have anything to do with our freedom, liberty and democracy, but have everything to do with U.S. policies and actions in the Muslim world."

I also agree with this quote from Michael Moore:

“Terrorists aren't trying to kill us because they hate our freedom. They're killing us because we're in their countries killing them.”

So why are we cheering?

Chances are, his death will have little impact on the so-called War on Terror or on anti-American feelings around the world.

So, we killed him. Now we can beat our chests and give our Tarzan yell. Hurray for us.

But we haven't changed anything. We are still killing innocent people in the Middle East, and until we stop that, we are still making enemies.

We have bungled almost everything we have done in response to the attacks of 9/11. We invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and killed thousands of innocent people, as if their blood would somehow atone for those attacks.

Most of the people we killed had little or nothing in common with those who planned and carried out those attacks. They were, metaphorically, distant relatives.

We have alienated thousands of people the world over, and now we have killed the figure-head of Al Qaeda, which is less of an organization and more of a belief system among those who see the USA as an imperialist monster.

Now more people who hate the USA will have more of a reason to attack Americans around the world.

Whoop-dee-do. Hurray for us.

But Americans should stop chanting and start reading. Maybe if we understood why Bin Laden and his followers hate us, we could make rational decisions about those policies.

-- Roger

© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle

(Link to Islamist reaction:)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/02/us-binladen-militants-idUSTRE74147320110502