The Death of Osama Bin Laden Means Nothing--Maybe Even… Less?

Utopia…

Yes, it is finally here! The days that the prophet Isaiah wrote of when he stated, “…They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.” (ch2, vs4). We have finally arrived at a place of peace, a world without war, a society with no senseless shedding of blood! Can you feel it? No more violence, harm, or danger!!! The war is over! Now that Osama Bin Laden is dead, bullets and guns are worthless, all nuclear weapons can be dismantled and all people in the military can stop training how to fight and only concern themselves with humanitarian missions. Yes, believers and infidels alike will not only hold hands and stroll together into the horizon of peace and brotherhood, but they will all dine together at the table of humanity. Oh they joy set before us… OK, OK, OK, maybe I am being just a tiny bit sarcastic (you think?). But I can’t be any worse than all these morons acting like today should be a national holiday. Context and perspective is everything when it comes to having an accurate understanding of something. This is no exception to the rule. The death of this one man, no matter what your feelings are towards/about him, does even less than cause a ripple in the boisterous sea of war and conflict that certain parts of world are engaged in. Let me spell it out for you; it changes NOTHING… well maybe the FBI/CIA Most Wanted posters/list and actually there’s a chance that some Pakistani is a few million dollars richer. Other than that, what will change besides the face of Al Qaeda? This war will continue to drag on, just like the war drags on Iraq—way after a guy named Saddam Hussein also met his maker. Any person acting like this is a huge triumph and step forward in this whole mess has gotten it all wrong. Sure, he was the face and leadership of this global terrorist network—but it’s GLOBAL and it’s a NETWORK for a reason. Leadership is easily replaced and the killing of key people—no matter how key--has little affect on the overall mission and capability thereof. Trust me, this dude had many loyal and able soldiers to take up the cause. Maybe his death was warranted. Only God knows now. I do not rejoice over anyone’s death—no matter who or what. Personally, I do believe some should die—murderers, rapists, child-molesters, etc. But even then I would not rejoice at their demise or what some would deem “justice.” Should justice be rejoiced over? Or should we just quietly rest in the fact that hopefully it was served? Sure, some things are right but that does not mean that they are to be celebrated.

Justice?

As far as the concept of justice goes, I can’t quite reach my arms around that. I mean, look at what it took to finally get him. Just in Afghanistan, over 2,400 service members have lost their lives. In Iraq over 4,000 paid the ultimate price. These numbers are just military alone and how many died on 9/11? These numbers are dwarfed when one adds in all the civilian casualties and injuries resulting from this—not to mention the affects upon countless families and the hundreds of billions of dollars spent so far—under the guise of going after him. If you ask me, in the long run—he didn't go empty handed. Yeah, I said it. Before all you war-hawks, armchair generals, and ignorant flag waving know-it-alls come after me—understand one thing… I volunteered and served in uniform (and I don’t mean a UPS uniform either) in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Not only that, 4 members of my immediate family did the same and one was shot (thank God for his armor). So, I don’t want to hear or read any of your silly “anti-American” or “traitor” accusations. If anyone has a right to scrutinize and criticize this “war”—it is I. I put on the jersey and went into the game, until you do the same, save it. OK, back to this… if you look at what it took to finally get this guy—kill him, was it worth it? Some if not most would say, “yes.” Well, he’s dead now. What will be different tomorrow? Are the curtains of war finally going to be drawn? Are the rest of the people who followed him and shared his dictates going to snap out of their ideological coma and think like the ones they view as the enemy? What long-planned terrorist act is not going to be undertaken now? What would-be suicide bomber is now scared of the long-arm of the U.S. military? It took us a decade, thousands of lives, and an uncountable amount of money to shoot one guy in the head for crimes he committed of the most heinous order. In this huge disarray of ignorance, hatred, bloodshed, and violence—it is quite difficult for me to feel any sense of justice. Honesty, that is one of the last words which comes to mind.

Killing a Fly With A Sledgehammer

What has happened is the equivalent of going into a neighbor’s home and trying to kill a fly with a sledgehammer. Sure, after taking huge swipes at it for a decade you may finally have smashed him. But what else have you destroyed in the process? In some ways, what America has done in going after this guy is akin to spending 2 million dollars to sue someone for a thousand dollars—even if you win this one, you still lose. In other words, when we lifted the sledgehammer up and saw the smashed insect we still have to look around and deal with all the damage inflicted on our neighbor’s home. Sure, he’s dead, but what else has been killed? We can’t go in, make a mess and then say, “Hey, we killed that pesky fly. Now all your troubles are over. OK, we’ll be going now.” It does not work that way. I do believe that sometimes, you have to use a sledgehammer to kill a fly to send a message and bring an abrupt halt to the nonsense (like what happened to Japan in WWII). But this is not a conventional war fought in a conventional manner in any way, shape, or form. So yes, Osama Bin Laden is (finally) dead, but so are a lot of other people connected to this whole mess. Where do we go from here? Going after him was why this whole this began, but something tells me that we haven’t even scratched the surface of the start of all this—even after a decade into it.

The Affects of Making a Martyr

The Middle East is going through a social/political metamorphosis of sorts now. I believe that it is splitting between the people who support the thinking of ideologues such as Bin Laden and progressive people who desire a more free, open, and tolerant Middle East. This generation is the first to shuck off all the “colonialism, anti-western” rhetoric that the former and present Middle Eastern leadership has used for many years to continually manipulate the citizenry while robbing them of not only money but opportunities and futures. This generation is the one that realizes that the real enemies of their states are no longer foreign powers, but  the very governments that are supposed to be their caretakers. With that said, I truly believe that people such as Osama Bin Laden were headed for demise in influence. They would always have followers, but with the rise of change in the Middle East and the younger generation tasting true democracy and freedom, the alternative of joining his ranks would begin to lose its appeal. However, with his sudden death, he will now be a martyr and thus a forever living symbol of sorts and ironically this will give him immortality—Ché Guevara, Tupac, Steve Biko, etc. He now becomes a beacon or rallying point of sorts and an inspiration for generations to come. It doesn’t matter how good/bad he was. His image will be hijacked (yes, I used that word) and his legend will be spread. In the long run, I think it would have been so much more effective to have captured him alive and let him spend the next decade preparing for a trial that would last another decade and hopefully he could have died quietly in a prison cell. Let me prove my point… remember a man named Manuel Noriega? Exactly.

Fighting an Ideology—Not a War

What is being fought is a destructive, hateful, and intolerant ideology—not a war. This is why we are having such issues. You cannot fight ideologies with bullets, you have to fight them with truth, education, opportunities, prosperity, freedoms and change when necessary. Destructive ideologies must to be exposed for the frauds that they are. They have to be examined, deconstructed, and proven to be failures. Communism in the Soviet Union was fought like this. And this is the only way it will be successfully defeated in Cuba, North Korea, and it is how it is slowly dying in China (whether they want to admit it or not). Americans thought they partially defeated Communism’s spread in Afghanistan in the 80’s with weaponry. But when the Russians left and it was time to build a prosperous nation in Afghanistan, America dropped the ball and another destructive ideology took root—the government of the Taliban. The C.I.A. thought that they could defeat the ideology of Communism with bullets and shoulder fired rocket launchers given to the Afghani fighters. What they really helped create was a man named Osama Bin Laden.