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defrog‘Scuse me while I get this off my chest …
By now you’ve heard the news, and you’ve probably read just about every viewpoint there is on this. To include the inevitable conspiracy theories. Of COURSE the whole thing was faked. Bin Laden has either been dead for years already, or is still alive and the whole thing was cooked up to justify our eighth year in Afghanistan (and counting), or never existed in the first place.
Well, sure. You’ve never seen Bin Laden in person, have you? You only have the US govt’s word for it. And they lie about EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME.
What fun!
And why not? Conspiracy theories are as inevitable as Fox News chyron errors at this stage. To say nothing of the patriotic block parties celebrating the fact that we dispensed frontier justice and killed a guy.
Which fascinates me, because it’s exactly the kind of revelry we didn’t see when Obama declared Iraq War 2 over. The reaction to that was, to say the least, underwhelming. Killing Bin Laden, on the other hand, is the 21st Century equivalent of VE Day. It’s as if everyone decided that we couldn’t officially declare victory until Bin Laden was a sack of bloody bullet-riddled meat – hence all the people saying they’re happy that the War On Afghanistan wasn’t in vain.
Which – I’m sorry to say – bugs the fuck out of me. Here’s why.
The Afghanistan Takeover has cost America $443 billion as of March 2011. If you include the Iraq War (which, you’ll recall, was justified in part because Bin Laden had ties to Saddam Hussein, even though he didn’t), that’s another $800 billion. Then there’s all the dead people, both military and non-military, which adds up to six-digit figures.
All that just to get one guy. Technically you could call it a success. But ten years, $1.2 trillion and hundreds of thousands of corpses later, it ended up being the deadliest, most expensive manhunt in history. And we don’t even know whether it will even do any good in the War On The Terrorz. The smart money says it won’t.
Between that and all the American principles we’ve cheerfully sacrificed to get our man, Radney Balko is probably right. Bin Laden may be dead, but he got what he wanted in the end. And it’s the way he would have wanted to go.
Which is why I can’t really find anything worth celebrating about this. Well, that and I don’t get any satisfaction either from people being violently murdered, no matter how much you think they might deserve it. Probably from reading too much Martin Luther King Jr as an impressionable lad. (I’d throw in a Proverbs quote here, but that would be disingenuous.)
Mind you, I don’t feel bad for Bin Laden, either. “Buy the ticket, take the ride,” as Dr Thompson once said. Bin Laden bought his ticket years ago, and he knew what he was getting himself into when he started his batshit mission. And as much as I’d have preferred that Bin Laden stood trial – if only to prove to his dingbat followers that the infidel justice system of trial by jury and due process, flawed as it is, WORKS and will keep working no matter how many buildings they knock down – I’ve known from the moment Bin Laden was fingered for 9/11 that was never going to happen. It was always going to play out his way, and it’s only fair to say he asked for it.
Still, c’mon, demanding to see photos of the corpse is kind of gross. Not to mention Roman.
Or am I ruining it?
Ah well. Never mind. Enjoy the hatefest – which, now that the political finger-pointing has kicked into high gear, should last for the next couple of years.
Barring any unforeseen complications – like the end of the world.
Well, why not? Even Rush Limbaugh gave Obama praise and credit for the Bin Laden operation. If that’s not a sign of the Apocalypse, I’d like to know what is.
I just can’t be happy today,
This is dF
By now you’ve heard the news, and you’ve probably read just about every viewpoint there is on this. To include the inevitable conspiracy theories. Of COURSE the whole thing was faked. Bin Laden has either been dead for years already, or is still alive and the whole thing was cooked up to justify our eighth year in Afghanistan (and counting), or never existed in the first place.
Well, sure. You’ve never seen Bin Laden in person, have you? You only have the US govt’s word for it. And they lie about EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME.
What fun!
And why not? Conspiracy theories are as inevitable as Fox News chyron errors at this stage. To say nothing of the patriotic block parties celebrating the fact that we dispensed frontier justice and killed a guy.
Which fascinates me, because it’s exactly the kind of revelry we didn’t see when Obama declared Iraq War 2 over. The reaction to that was, to say the least, underwhelming. Killing Bin Laden, on the other hand, is the 21st Century equivalent of VE Day. It’s as if everyone decided that we couldn’t officially declare victory until Bin Laden was a sack of bloody bullet-riddled meat – hence all the people saying they’re happy that the War On Afghanistan wasn’t in vain.
Which – I’m sorry to say – bugs the fuck out of me. Here’s why.
The Afghanistan Takeover has cost America $443 billion as of March 2011. If you include the Iraq War (which, you’ll recall, was justified in part because Bin Laden had ties to Saddam Hussein, even though he didn’t), that’s another $800 billion. Then there’s all the dead people, both military and non-military, which adds up to six-digit figures.
All that just to get one guy. Technically you could call it a success. But ten years, $1.2 trillion and hundreds of thousands of corpses later, it ended up being the deadliest, most expensive manhunt in history. And we don’t even know whether it will even do any good in the War On The Terrorz. The smart money says it won’t.
Between that and all the American principles we’ve cheerfully sacrificed to get our man, Radney Balko is probably right. Bin Laden may be dead, but he got what he wanted in the end. And it’s the way he would have wanted to go.
Which is why I can’t really find anything worth celebrating about this. Well, that and I don’t get any satisfaction either from people being violently murdered, no matter how much you think they might deserve it. Probably from reading too much Martin Luther King Jr as an impressionable lad. (I’d throw in a Proverbs quote here, but that would be disingenuous.)
Mind you, I don’t feel bad for Bin Laden, either. “Buy the ticket, take the ride,” as Dr Thompson once said. Bin Laden bought his ticket years ago, and he knew what he was getting himself into when he started his batshit mission. And as much as I’d have preferred that Bin Laden stood trial – if only to prove to his dingbat followers that the infidel justice system of trial by jury and due process, flawed as it is, WORKS and will keep working no matter how many buildings they knock down – I’ve known from the moment Bin Laden was fingered for 9/11 that was never going to happen. It was always going to play out his way, and it’s only fair to say he asked for it.
Still, c’mon, demanding to see photos of the corpse is kind of gross. Not to mention Roman.
Or am I ruining it?
Ah well. Never mind. Enjoy the hatefest – which, now that the political finger-pointing has kicked into high gear, should last for the next couple of years.
Barring any unforeseen complications – like the end of the world.
Well, why not? Even Rush Limbaugh gave Obama praise and credit for the Bin Laden operation. If that’s not a sign of the Apocalypse, I’d like to know what is.
I just can’t be happy today,
This is dF
