Response to The Big Win

I'm just not feeling it.

Sorry gang. The blood lust. The 'Big Win'. I got nothin'.

I'm refusing to feel the way I'm told that I am supposed to feel about the US's actions in the most recent of recent events.

In the morning I see headlines that Quadaffy's son and grandchildren were killed by a NATO airstrike. That was Sunday morning. Later that night, Osama Bin Laden's death is announced to the nation.

"A good day for America," was proclaimed. By the President of the United States, no less.

Teenagers converge upon the White House and the cemetery of the former World Trade Center to celebrate. Cameras pop up their microwave antennas to make a spectacle of the gathering. Chants of "USA" and impromptu singing of "God Bless America" are recorded for the world audience. At best, the home team won the football game. Gloating to the world at their prowess. At worst, the LA Lakers won another ring and LA is in flames, again.

But I don't feel good about this one.

Yes, Bin Laden was a bad man. A very, deeply bad man who used religion and blood to support his own financial and political goals. He is responsible for killing and supporting killers directly and indirectly. His death should bring the end of a bookcase of the last three decades of Middle Eastern conflict. Starting with Afghanistan and the Soviet Invasion, and ending with the Americans and Afghanistan. He was a major player in both.

But I'm not going to write a history of the man, nor make any apologies for him.

He was a bad, bad man. To quote Jack Nicholson's Joker to a burnt corpse, "I'm glad you're dead!"

Here's the thing that's bugging me. Gnawing at my gut. He was killed by an Assault squad. This just doesn't add up in the history of these sort of things.

The narrative for the death of American-bad guys, and especially the end of their most notorious Bond-Villain State Enemies, doesn't seem to fit the mold.
Hitler had the decency to spare us the trial and offed himself. He even did it twice, one with a bullet, the other with a pill -- so we've been told. Mussolini was hung by a mob. Saddam was hung after being tried. Slobodan Milošević , Pol Pot, and Stalin all died of old age. The ending for Castro and Quadaffy haven't been written -- yet.

But the video game imagined sequence of the SEAL team dropping into Osama's Waco inspired compound just seems so... too... 21st Century? It doesn't seem complete, or final. Not just yet. There's the nagging element of violence begetting violence - that begets only more violence, compounding into a death spiral. It's a cycle that tends to keep repeating itself like a scene on a scratched Netflix DVD -- especially when religion is involved. Perhaps I'd feel a little more relieved had he been put on trial in the Hague and finally executed after a lengthy 10 year show trial -- had he lived that long. Maybe people would be arguing that the Assaulters should have popped him when they had the chance and saved everyone a lot of trouble? Maybe? These tend to be the same folks who think we should have nuked his compound. It seems like a big show trial is more in the USA's narrative. At least, that's how it used to be.

And the other thing - and maybe this is something I have to get over - is that the West isn't playing chess or WWII anymore. If you off the boss your $60 Xbox game, the game is over. You Won. You now may deflower the virginal princess. Not anymore. You've got 10 or 12 other, smaller side games going on now. Yemen, Newborn Iraq, the Philippines, German sleeper cells, Pakistan double agents, and Nuclear North Korea and Iran all are all still in play. And all are much more dangerous.

On the bright, sweet, and dripping ironic side of it all, the American team takes out Osama exactly three months after he deemed irrelevant by the Arab Spring. The people of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya (maybe), Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen all rose up -- not using Al Queda's example of the gun and the C-4 martyrdom -- but a much simpler device, their phones.

Facebook, Twitter and strong will stood up to oppression and finally brought the much desired revolution. Social media, not guns. “If protest movements access significant numbers of people, for any opposition event, they can somewhat confidently act on their political motivations and challenge the state.” [Mary Bottari The Day Egypt Disappeared PRWatch. Feb 14, 2011] Hey, will someone text that to Hamas?

Hell, take the idea that Google Executive Wael Ghonim's Facebook page “We are All Khalid Said” after an Egyptian Activist was killed by the police, organized over 100,000 people to protest on Egypt’s Police Day. How many people were ever in Osama's friend page? Who had better results?

Isn't it poetic that after the last decade, Al Queda means, "The List?"

Maybe the world will be a little more optimistic now that he's gone. Maybe it's a little safer? We can hope. And that can be very powerful. Maybe that's what I need to focus on?

Maybe it's what we all need to focus on?

Maybe we can start discussing dismantling the illegal wiretaps and 24/7 surveillance of American citizens? Maybe we can discuss drawing down the intrusive and unconstitutional TSA at our nations airports before we expand them? And those are just the items related to Osama and his gang. Perhaps we can stop exporting violence, and instead export a little more hope?