Various news organizations are reporting that Osama Bin Laden is dead. President Obama is expected to announce the news. Bin Laden was reportedly killed in Pakistan by an operation involving Navy Seals but the story is still unfolding. YahooReports indicate that he was shot in the head after he and his bodyboards resisted an attack by the elite unit.
The fact that he reportedly went down fighting will likely add to his image as a martyr — though people who follow him need little encouragement or reason.
Bin Laden was a murderous fanatic who used religion to spread hate. His passing from this Earth would be welcomed news and, even for the most agnostic or atheist among us, there is a lingering wish that there is place for the damned to greet men like Bin Laden after the untold harm that he caused not just to his country but to many countries. Hundreds of thousands of dead can be credited to his dark legacy and beliefs.
While liberals and conservatives differed on the means used to fight Bin Laden, there was never any division on the commitment to fight terrorism or the shared loss from his crimes. On September 11th, the plane that hit the Pentagon struck just after I passed the building on my way to work. I made it about a mile away after blowing my tire on the curb and changing the tire as huge columns of smoke filled the air.
In the end, Bin Laden remained the authentic symbol of radical Islam — an extremist filled with hate living with fellow troglodytes in caves and crevices.
Bin Laden’s death will force some accounting of what has been gained and what has been lost since his infamous wave of terror began. Too much of the damage of 9-11 proved to be self-inflicted, including our use of torture and the launching of two wars that have cost thousands of more American lives and hundreds of billions as the nation sinks into debt and economic distress.
There is no indication that our continued loss of money or personnel in Afghanistan will decrease in any way as a result of the news. While the Afghanistan war seemed personality driven with Bin Laden as the face of evil, it has taken on a type perpetual war due to a lack of political courage to end it.
The world is far better without the likes of Osama Bin Laden. However, he left an ample legacy (and legions) to guarantee that religious hate will continue to shape the future of that region and the world at large.
OS,
See you tomorrow.
Eric Hoffer was a true self-made genius — if there is one. It didn’t hurt that he saw the events around him with a penetrating vision but his was surely a razor sharp mind honed from reading the classics. There’s a lesson there.
It is getting strange in here. Lets all turn in and get a fresh start tomorrow.
Or was that the WWF?
raff, you are in trouble. Everyone knows he played for the NBA.
OS,
I didn’t realize that Ray Nitschke became an author after his NFL career! 🙂
mespo: Thanks. When I said she is brilliant, I was not exaggerating in the slightest. By the time she was 15 she had read all Nietzsche’s books.
But back to Eric Hoffer. When reading Hoffer, it is hard to keep remembering he was a self-educated longshoreman who wrote mostly when they were on strike. A true blue-collar working man who had the mind of a Harvard philosophy professor. Very powerful insights into the human condition. I agree that everyone should read The Ordeal of Change. Another excellent Hoffer work is The Passionate State of Mind.
Sorry OS, I skipped right over your reference to the Ordeal of Change. Serves me right for trying to read something and type at the same time.
Good picks!
OS:
Bright kid you’ve got there. May I also suggest, The Ordeal of Change for some real insight on these tea baggers:
The weak are not a noble breed. Their sublime deeds of faith, daring, and self-sacrifice usually spring from questionable motives. The weak hate not wickedness but weakness; and one instance of their hatred of weakness is hatred of self. All the passionate pursuits of the weak are in some degree a striving to escape, blur, or disguise an unwanted self. It is a striving shot through with malice, envy, self-deception, and a host of petty impulses; yet it often culminates in superb achievements. Thus we find that people who fail in everyday affairs often show a tendency to reach out for the impossible. They become responsive to grandiose schemes, and will display unequaled steadfastness, formidable energies and a special fitness in the performance of tasks which would stump superior people. It seems paradoxical that defeat in dealing with the possible should embolden people to attempt the impossible, but a familiarity with the mentality of the weak reveals that what seems a path of daring is actually an easy way out: It is to escape the responsibility for failure that the weak so eagerly throw themselves into grandiose undertakings. For when we fail in attaining the possible the blame is solely ours, but when we fail in attaining the impossible we are justified in attributing it to the magnitude of the task.
Bob,Esq.
1, May 2, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Blouise,
I think I’ll reserve my response for an email. However, I strongly suggest you catch the coverage on the Democracy Now site for a review of why the official story makes little to no sense.
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I’m in thick of getting ready for a Primary tomorrow but I will go to the site you recommended. I do hope I won’t find that the Seal team simply stumbled into the compound while picnicking.
“Some of us have more knowledge than others, but the ones that do are not going to compromise intelligence techniques in order to score cheap points.” (OS) … I’m forever out in the cold … no, no it’s true … always a day late and a dollar short …
mespo: I recently bought The True Believer and The Ordeal of Change for my teenage granddaughter. She is a brilliant kid who soaks up ideas like a sponge. She loved Hoffer’s insights. I first encountered him in graduate school when one of my professors insisted I read The True Believer. I think everyone ought to read it.
We can see some of that blind faith and mindless following in the teabaggers and others like them. We have even seen some of that kind of thinking on this blawg.
Mespo,
Great article by Fareed Zakaria. He is an expert worth listening to.
Thanks OS, that was hilarious…
Very informative article by Fareed Zakaria on the impact of OBL’s death on the philosophical underpinnings of al Qaeda:
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/02/al-qaeda-is-dead/?hpt=T2
Anyone interested in the effect of the death of a charismatic leader on a mass movement like OBL is encouraged to read Eric Hoffer’s 1951 masterpiece, True Believer. Here are some timeless excerpts:
The leader personifies the certitude of the creed and the defiance and grandeur of power. He articulates and justifies the resentment dammed up in the souls of the frustrated. He kindles the vision of a breathtaking future so as to justify the sacrifice of a transitory present. He stages the world of make-believe so indispensable for the realization of self-sacrifice and united action. He evokes the enthusiasm of communion – the sense of liberation from a petty and meaningless individual existence. (p. 114)
The total surrender of a distinct self is a prerequisite for the attainment of both unity and self-sacrifice; and there is probably no more direct way of realizing this surrender than by inculcating and extolling the habit of blind obedience. […] All mass movements rank obedience with the highest virtues and put it on a level with faith. […] “Not to reason why” is considered by all mass movements the mark of a strong and generous spirit. (p. 117)
[When] the leader can exact blind obedience, he can operate on the sound theory that all men are cowards, treat them accordingly and get results. (p. 119)
A movement is pioneered by men of words, materialized by fanatics and consolidated by men of action. It is usually an advantage to a movement, and perhaps a prerequisite for its endurance, that these roles should be played by different men succeeding each other as conditions require. […] With the appearance of the man of action the explosive vigor of the movement is embalmed and sealed in sanctified institutions. A religious movement crystallizes in a hierarchy and a ritual. (p. 147-149)
OS,
I saw that tidbit about the intel that the Seals got from the compound. I hope it leads to a lot more terrorists.
W=c” Here is Randall’s YouTube page. He knows a lot about animals and the irreverent (now THAT is an understatement) commentary is typically hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/user/czg123#g/c/2A9D6BFCC78EDB71
Otteray Scribe
1, May 2, 2011 at 9:15 pm
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hahahahaha! OS, was that an Animal Planet vid? interesting commentator….
According to White House sources, the SEAL team not only snatched OBL’s body, they got a treasure trove of computer hard drives and papers. He did not have internet in the compound, but did have computers. Word is that hundreds of experts are now going through the stuff to see what is current and actionable.
One might suspect there are a lot of operatives around the world who need a Valium right now. And a deep hole in which to hide.
slarti
as far as osamas grave site goes i’m sure there were a few navy chiefs on the fantail making certain it was well watered
Nal:
What is “normal” for Donald Rumsfeld may not be normal for the rest of the sentient beings on the planet. Except maybe Dick Cheney and John Yoo.