Monday, May 2, 2011

Dead


One minute it's the Royal wedding and the next it's OBL has been killed by U.S. operators in Pakistan. So much, I suppose, for the 'new Saladin.'


Referring to OBL's attack on the World Trade center, the U.K.'s Guardian had this to say, back in 2001:


"A brilliantly orchestrated feat of planning, coordination and execution backed by formidable religious convictions, the attack on New York and Washington exemplifies something that has come to characterise the modern world: the union of the symbolic with the actual, the mythical with the material, in a single act of destruction shown live on television. It is a perfect example of what extremists of an earlier generation termed the 'propaganda of the deed'".
 
"Mythical with the material"? All very philisophic. The Guardian seemed to think at the time that OBL had checkmated America; now their mastermind is dead.



Not that I'm a whining, comsymp, multiculturalist, Gaia-worshiping pacifist, or that I don't think that OBL had it coming - he did - but I'd like to see an end to the last decade's bout of killing.


I fear that's probably wishful thinking.

LSP

7 comments:

The Conservative Lady said...

I would like to see the end of the killing, too. Unfortunately, I don't think Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his ilk feel the same way.
I was happy to hear that the US Military finally got bin Laden, but I fear retribution is on it's way.

LSP said...

I have a feeling you're right, CL. Then again, perhaps they'll think twice before inviting a Seal team over their way.

OBL - not dissimilar to Hitler - didn't think the Americans would fight...

God bless.

Silverfiddle said...

Dead. Just the way we like our terrorists.

greg tingey said...

OBL did it, because he thought "god" wanted him to ....
When his death was announced, many Americans praised "god" for it.
Um, err ......
I'm reminded of interviews with Hamas mambers & jewish "settlers" in the West Bank area ... both sides claimed "god" had given them the land.
Something is seriously wrong inside these people's heads.

Speaking from a secular point of view, OBL had publicly declared himself an enemy of not just the USA, but "the West" and claimed to be at war.
People get killed in wars, and good riddance to this particular nasty individual.

All Seeing Eye said...

If this was a standard conflict then killing the Commander-In-Chief would bring it to an end...or at least everybody to the negotiating table.

But it isn't. The best we can hope for is that this was one of the stronger heads to the hydra.

A good result but for psychological rather than military reasons. And I fear that Obama is taking his foot off the pedal on the second one.

LSP said...

Silverfiddle, I couldn't agree more.

LSP said...

"good riddance to this particularly nasty individual" - I'd second that, Tingey.

ASE, with you, I doubt negotiation is init. But perhaps this will knock them back a bit.

Hard to tell what the "Commander" is up to; I'm not desperately sanguine.