Wednesday 4 May 2011

Celebrating Americans

It seems very strange to be the one attempting to defend the American military's actions in Pakistan, over the past 10 years i can't think of a single time when i have agreed with either of the American administrators actions in the Middle East.
As the facts of Bin Laden's final moments dribble out, i am very uneasy with watching scenes of celebrating Americans shouting USA, USA and hearing them call it justice for what he perpetrated in 2001.
Al Queada also killed 250 in Bombay, 200 in Nairobi, 202 in Bali, 57 in Istanbul, 116 in the Philippines, 191 in Madrid, 56 in London, 88 in Sharm el-Sheikh, 209 in Mumbai and tens of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While all these nations suffered from Al Queada's terrorism, the United States is the only place where it sparked raucous jubilation.
It could be put down to 10 years of abject failures in the War on Terror where Americans have had very little to cheer about.
The frustration of the last decade which eroded Americas standing in the World, showed up the limits of the World's premier military power, prompted an erosion of U.S. civil liberties and saw the shameful use of torture and detention as well as the waste of a trillion dollars on fruitless wars with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents.
The resentment of all this came out in the death of the man blamed for everything although the realisation must come soon that what they have removed is only the far removed from operations figurehead, the ideology and people willing to strap explosives to themselves will continue unabated.
Americans have the right to grieve and remember those who died on 9/11, as do the British, Indians, Iraqi's, Afghans and everyone else who were targeted by Al Queada.
Elsewhere, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Afghans have been murdered directly by America in its response to 9/11, massively increasing the pool Al Queada recruits from, so it isn't hard to see why not everybody appreciated the wild cheering at the baseball game and the chants of 'USA, USA' and 'We're number one'.
The American military has done many things in that region and killing Bin Laden is just one highlight among an ocean of horrors.
While Americans celebrate the death of Bin Laden, the truth is more nations around the world will celebrate if it was George W Bush or Tony Blair that was assassinated and dumped in the sea and that should be a sobering thought.

4 comments:

Nog said...

Your concerns about the satisfaction felt from Bin Laden’s death are counterproductive. You should worry more about Bin Laden’s death not being satisfying enough.

When we get into a fight, why do we want to win? You get to stop fighting with your honor intact, you presumably get something for your efforts (the winnings), and you get to be really happy about winning for a while. There are other reasons, but this explanation sums it up for many cases.

If we can’t stop fighting with our honor intact, if killing Bin Laden isn’t winning something, and if we can’t be really happy about getting him for a while, then we haven’t won. So if killing Bin Laden doesn’t mean that America won, then America hasn’t won and America doesn’t get to stop fighting. You’re not alone in misunderstanding what is going on. A lot of folks I know (especially American Muslims) are strangely concerned about American reactions to Osama Bin Laden’s death. Y’all seem to want Americans to tone down their “we got him!” happiness. If you don’t like the awkward position of Muslims in American society, or American foreign policy in the Middle East, the last thing you should want is for the Americans to stop being happy about Bin Laden.

Here’s how it’ll play out as long as folks don’t make we Americans feel all bummed about killing Osama. The Americans get to be all happy for a month, and everyone else in the world gets to have the Americans out of their hair. Do you think that Muslims face undue stigma in the United States? Let the Americans keep telling themselves that they killed the one (alleged) Muslim they didn’t like, and they’ll realize that they have no quarrel with any non-dead Muslims. Don’t like the Americans in the Middle East? Well as long as the Americans keep telling themselves that they won, they’ll get out of the Middle East.



-Nog

Lucy said...

I worry the success might spur America (& Britain) to bigger but not so better things.

Nog said...

I guess it makes since to worry about that. But my extensive knowledge of the guns-blazing-cowboy types leads me to think that they are tired of fighting in Afghanistan.


-Nog

Anonymous said...

with 300 million americans everything is celebrated by somebody. most people I know just went about their business as usual.

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