I was going to post a truly eloquent, well-thought-out post about the death of Osama Bin Laden and what it means. But it's late and I'm tired. So instead, here are eleven fairly random items:
1) I'm glad he's gone.
2) Yes, I really think he's dead.
3) I don't think the Pakistani government was keeping him under house arrest. But, yes, I think some members of the ISI may have had an inkling of his whereabouts. I doubt we'll ever know the truth of just how much Pakistan knew.
4) I don't particularly care one way or the other about the pictures.
5) Yes, I do think Barack Obama's changes in Afghanistan and counterterrorism policies led to his capture. And yes, I think we would have captured him much sooner if we had concentrated on Afghanistan and counterterrorism after 9/11 instead of choosing to invade Iraq.
6) I flipped around the various news channels late Sunday night to try to find out more, and there was a lot of genuine reporting going on for the first hour or two after the announcement. In addition to channels with news, I also turned on Fox "News" three times. This is what I saw on those three occasions:
--Former Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card trying to explain how George W. Bush was really the guy responsible for this.
--Some guy in the crowd in front of the White House waving a Bush/Cheney sign.
--Geraldo Rivera at what appeared to be a frat party, with some very drunk college students.
7) No, I did not make up any of the items in number six. More's the pity.
8) I don't intend to follow much more that the blogosphere has to say on the topic. It's pretty clear that the silly season has started up again already.
9) I don't think this is the end of the "War on Terror" but maybe it's the beginning of the end. I don't think terrorism will ever go away altogether. It never has. But I think that between this and the successful protest-driven regime changes in the Middle East this Spring, we might just see a long, steady decline in Middle Eastern terrorism. That would be a welcome development for the whole world.
10) None of those guys on Navy Seal Team Six on Sunday ever have to buy a drink if I'm in the bar.
11) I was only going to list ten items, but I wanted to use the phrase "Osama Bin Laden sleeps with the fishes." So here it is. I like it. It may not be a mature, reasoned response, but it makes me happy.
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"...bold words from a man driving a Mazda Protegé wagon."
ReplyDeleteHa-ha! Touché! :)
P.S. Didn't mean to hate on your ride. ;)
Say again, Ryan? Didn't this comment stray from its path?
ReplyDeleteThere are two possibilities here, Arsen:
ReplyDelete1) That comment strayed over here from the 13 Minutes comics blog, where Ryan's current work in progress is getting the page-by-page review (http://thirteenminutes.blogspot.com/2011/05/grinding-it-out.html) which is an especially interesting exercise in comics creation and criticism that is entirely unrelated to Osama Bin Laden's demise.
As far as *you* know.
2) Or, it was a code phrase meant to deploy Navy Seal Team Six on its next assignment.
Either way, I'd like to say that having to drive a Mazda Protegé wagon is in and of itself more than enough punishment for any offense given to the aesthetics our lovely Honda Civic Hybrid.
Harrumph!
Arsen: COMPLETELY off-topic. (See John's #1) My apologies.
ReplyDeleteJohn: *still LOL-ing!*
Maybe next time I visit we can drag-race around Wolverine Lake to see who receives the greater "punishment." ;)
(Just messin'. C.I.T.T.'s got nothin' to prove.)
John's #4: I do care about the photos. I remember quite clearly in 2003 the photos of Saddam Hussein being captured and the statues being pulled down in Baghdad. Thierry and I were in Rome at the time. We could not understand the commentary but we saw the pictures running over and over again on the screens we happened upon. Like the pictures of the Twin Towers imploding in 2001. I am very happy - although I have no TV and don't watch news on the internet and only learned that the photos of the body had not been shown by listening to the radio - that Obama chose not to publish them. It seems to me in accord with his personality and a certain wisdom. No matter how wrong he has gone perhaps, I see in the non publication of these photos the Obama I would have voted for if I could have.
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