The killing of Osama bin Laden is one of those events which, especially in the immediate aftermath, is not susceptible to reasoned discussion. It's already a Litmus Test event: all Decent People -- by definition -- express unadulterated ecstacy at his death, and all Good Americans chant "USA! USA!" in a celebration of this proof of our national greatness and Goodness (and that of our President). Nothing that deviates from that emotional script will be heard, other than by those on the lookout for heretics to hold up and punish. Prematurely interrupting a national emotional consensus with unwanted rational truths accomplishes nothing but harming the heretic (ask Bill Maher about how that works).
I'm especially disturbed that it was a "shoot to kill" operation, though there has been some backtracking from that original statement. I want our country to take the moral high ground. We may not have been able to take him alive, but we won't know for sure if that opportunity was rejected outright until the video (if there is one) of the operation becomes available. I would like to see how the whole thing went down; however, I doubt we see that in our lifetime.
I'm really not interested in the dead photo of OBL. I really don't care one way or the other if it's made public. I'm really amused, though, by the argument that making the photos public will "infuriate" the Middle East. Let's see... We invade their countries, decimate the towns and countryside, murder 100's of thousands of civilians, make millions of other civilians refugees and now by showing the death picture they're really, really going to get mad? Now that's funny!
I was really disgusted the original "propaganda" that was tossed out there by Obama officials saying among other things Obama used a woman as a shield, he was armed, etc., thus making him even more dastardly. Or as Greenwald puts it:
Virtually every major newspaper account of the killing of Osama bin Laden consists of faithful copying of White House claims. That's not surprising: it's the White House which is in exclusive possession of the facts, but what's also not surprising is that many of the claims that were disseminated yesterday turned out to be utterly false. And no matter how many times this happens -- from Jessica Lynch's heroic firefight against Iraqi captors to Pat Tillman's death at the hands of Evil Al Qaeda fighters -- it never changes: the narrative is set forever by first-day government falsehoods uncritically amplified by establishment media outlets, which endure no matter how definitively they are disproven in subsequent days.
Ray McGovern, a CIA analyst for 21 years, calls them the "Fawning Corporate Media" (FCM). I agree. A very interesting man. There's a DVD series running around called "Speaking Freely." He is one of the speakers. He gives a fascinating talk on how the CIA went from an information gathering agency (Truman's intent) to becoming the President's personal, private army. I highly recommend it.
For me, it was the Bush Administration that elevated OBL into the major symbol that he is by making him and his minions an army to be fought on the field of battle. I've always believed these thugs should have been treated as criminals and international detective work used to apprehend them.
Of course, if one does not celebrate by shouting "USA,USA" you will be looked at strangely. Again Greenwald:
"Recall what happened in 2003 when Howard Dean interrupted the national celebratory ritual triggered by Saddam Hussein's capture when he suggested that that event would likely not make us safer. He was demonized by political leaders in both parties, with Joe Lieberman finally equating him with Saddam by accusing Dean of being in a 'spider hole of denial.' That will be the same demonizing reaction targeted at anyone who deviates from today's ritualistic script."
I agree.
Of course, the far-reaching impact will most likely be the re-election of Obama. I figured he would be re-elected already (barring unforeseen disasters), but this about clinches it. Or as Matt Taibbi puts it:
First of all, for the next eighteen months, Obama is going to respond to every single foreign-policy question by holding up Bin Laden’s head and swinging it in front of him like a lantern (metaphorically speaking, of course). It doesn’t matter what the question is: ask Obama about the Irish debt crisis, he’ll answer, "The Irish have been important allies in our fight against terrorism, which as you’ll recall resulted recently in the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden …
Finally, way too much coverage the last four days. But that's the 24-hour cable news FCM. And while that's loudly been going on, two nobody Republicans quietly filed for the candidacy of the presidency and the abortion law (trying to tax health plans involving abortions) is quietly being passed in Congress. From Daily Kos:
"According to the National Women's Law Center, the bill will increase costs and taxes for millions of women and small businesses, which, as as David Waldman pointed out yesterday, completely violates those precious Tea Party values of shrinking government and cutting taxes. In fact, it will raise taxes on men too—because anyone who has a health insurance policy that covers abortion, whether they use it for abortion or not, will not be allowed to take a tax deduction for that insurance policy."
Who knows what else is currently being quietly done behind the scenes? Then we will look up one day and say to ourselves how did THAT get by us????
