DISCLAIMER: I do not claim to be an intelligence analyst or foreign affairs expert, so take my opinions accordingly.
Unless you have lived under a rock much like Osama bin Laden himself the last decade (HI-YO!), you have probably heard the news that American forces have killed the noted terrorist and spokesmodel for hirsute fashion. I have seen countless posts on Facebook and Twitter concerning his death, and unfortunately many of the posts fall somewhere between ignorant and uninformed. While I have no intention of dissecting these individual posts or starting anything with their authors, I will touch upon some of the common themes I found.
Erroneous Point #1: Osama bin Laden was omnipotent and omnipresent.
I’m not even going to insert any Saddam Hussein body double jokes here. The fact of the matter was that bin Laden was the face of a powerful and radical terrorist organization. He was not the president, premier, or prime minister of the nation of Terror, nor any other nation for that matter. He had no seat in the governments of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Libya, North Korea, or any other nation that we feel falls in our ideological firing range. He was not the head of OPEC. He was one man.
Erroneous Point #2: The death of bin Laden is going to lead to some sort of utopian society.
The world was not a perfect place before September 11, 2001. It is even less perfect on May 2, 2011. There are a number of factors for this, and it would be asinine to even attempt to place the blame for the world’s problems on one individual. The death of one man is not going to lead to heaven on earth (though, if Belinda Carlisle is to be believed, Heaven is a Place on Earth). It is not going to lead to all the troops going home immediately. It is not going to bring gas back down to under $2 a gallon. It is not going to fix the economy or bring jobs to those looking for it. It was a significant and largely symbolic victory in an ideological war, but if you think that nobody is going to step up and assume his authority, you are a bit naïve. If anything, it is potentially proof of a return to competence by U.S. intelligence. The world still needs a whole lot of fixing. This was not some sort of wide-covering bandage.
Erroneous Point #3: The death of bin Laden is an elaborate ruse to lead to feelings of goodwill for the Obama Administration.
There are those out there who seriously apparently believe this was a hoax. They probably believe the moon landing was staged and that WWE superstar Kane was played by a different man after unmasking. These thoughts are ridiculous, but I will play along for just one moment and counter with this: EVEN IF there is the potential for you to be right, we are still a good 18 months away from reelection. That is the equivalent to me taking a shower for a date many hours in advance when I know there is the potential to get quite sweaty and dirty. I wouldn’t do it.
Erroneous Point #4: “Muslims” will get their revenge on us.
I am not going to take a long time on this one. Anyone who truly believes that all Muslims are terrorists are beyond hope. You are a moron, and I am not wasting any more time on you.
What I found most troubling is the volume of people openly celebrating the death of another person. Believe me, I know that bin Laden was one bad man. I understand that. If I was directly affected by the 9/11 attacks, I might feel differently. However, with him having no direct affect on my life, I cannot in good conscience celebrate the end of another man’s life. I am more than happy that this puts an end to his actions, but I cannot and will not celebrate his death. I will not join any Facebook pages “liking” “The Guy Who Killed bin Laden”. Call me unpatriotic if you will. It sickens me that there are those who both praise God for this death and take pleasure of bin Laden spending an eternity “burning in hell.” The hypocrisy in those statements is disgusting.
So, where do we go from here? Back to business as usual. I am going to take the bold step and assume that none of my readers either a) worked under bin Laden or b) were tasked with capturing and/or killing him. Therefore, nothing has really changed for us. We still have our lives, our jobs, our families, our goals, and our dreams. Keep working on improving those things, and maybe we will move closer to that perfect world that many erroneously believe bin Laden’s death will bring.
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