Monday, May 02, 2011

On the death of Bin Laden

And how it signifies that we have a long way to go before we come to grips with who we are as a nation. 

This mass patriotism always makes me extremely uneasy and deeply worries me. Especially this, now. these events make America even more blind, make regular citizens once again overlook all the horrible acts that we are responsible for in the name of finding one man in a far and distant land that we somehow feel will bring resolution to what happened on 9/11. Anyone who knows anything about world conflict or any kind of conflict at all knows that the cat and mouse chase will just go back and forth. We have declared some kind of victory for killing Osama bin Laden and have taken this opportunity to act like a bunch of rednecks. Soon, I'm sure, some horrible act of "revenge" for the death of Osama will fall on us, and the cat and mouse game will pick up again where it left off. As my friend Dan Denvir rightly pointed out in his piece

Bin Laden Killing Does Not Vindicate Afghanistan and Iraq Wars

we need to take responsibility for the deaths that have taken place in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. we need to collectively as a country realize that we are all guilty of these unforgivable crimes, and we all need to put down our weapons, and find peace in a way that doesn't involve murders. Islamaphobia will go on, probably fueled more by this event. Our military will continue to kill innocent bystanders. Middle Eastern people who have nothing to do with the conflict will die by "drones".

We need to step back and look at ourselves, and this so-called cause for celebration and rejoice of "justice" just takes people even further away. A great deal of Americans are sadly immature, and have equivocated this to some kind of sport, or cowboys and Indians-type game. It is deadly, complicated, tragic, and the longest foreign war in our nation's history has resulted from this "war on terrorism". As one bumper sticker in my Berkeley neighborhood joked "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam". Often times, it just feels like we have no understanding, as a country, of what we are doing. In any case, Dan, thanks for your honest, home-hitting words. We need more journalists like you. In this day of journalism being called dead, we need you more than ever.