After thousands of lives, 10 years, and trillions of dollars, can it really be that we have learned so little?
The greatest tragedies are those that are doomed to repeat themselves. Or put more traditionally: those from which we fail to learn something. That's what strikes me most about tonight. That, somehow, even after nearly a decade of combating 'islamic extremism' we, as a nation, have somehow failed to learn anything about Islam or Extremists....
Islam is not our enemy. If nothing else we should at least have figured that out by now. Particularly in light of the recent civil uprisings against tyranny in the middle east. Which couldn't have been more perfectly suited to play to Americans' democratic supremacism if they had been Cold-War era propaganda film. Yet, I guarantee that by noon tomorrow every major news outlet will be reporting on those who "are decrying the President's attempts to respect arcane Muslim burial rites regarding Bin Laden's body, as part of some vast 'Islamo-facist' conspiracy."
More importantly, as a nation we have learned nothing about extremism. Even those who reject the notion that our military-industrial machine is just about the worst possible tool to use against insurgent terrorism would concede that anti-american rhetoric is Al Qaeda's bread and butter. As our domestic politics have taught us narrative is the single most important aspect of modern politics. He who sets the narrative wins; a sort of "history is written by the winners" in reverse. Dancing in the streets, cheering, and reveling at the death of a Muslim man, plays right into their hands. We're reenforcing their narrative for them, and thats not even touching on the rampant anti-muslim bigotry that is spewed all across our airwaves.
Looking around at all the headlines, the most popular seems to be 'Justice at last,' or some variant. I find it impossible not to replace the word Justice, with Vengeance. Justice is a moral ideal: a deliberate, and rational process. Vengeance is simple, emotional, and primitive. There’s nothing noble or good about it. Whether or not Bin Laden's assassination was Just is irrelevant, because the celebration in our streets and bars tonight was not that of some sense of justice long overdue, but the bawdy clamor for vengeance of a bloodthirsty mob. Our roman ancestors would be proud.
Certainly the world is a marginally safer place now than it was yesterday, not because of his death, but the removal of his influence. Which is something to celebrate indeed. I suppose what I'm bothered by is the tone of it all. At the end of the day we're still celebrating the murder of a human being. We should be better than that. We owe it to the people who lost their lives at the hands of Al Qaeda. We owe it to our soldiers. We owe it to the civilians who were caught in the crossfire. We owe it to ourselves.
If we act this way, we become no better than the criminals we condemn.
That I think is the greatest tragedy in this. Not that we're debasing ourselves, or even that we’ve failed to truly learn anything from the last decade of war, but that any good that may have come from the death of Osama Bin Laden will ultimately be outweighed by the fervor we incite with our response.