Mission Accomplished

So many years after 9-11, and long after he'd ceased to be truly relevant, Osama Bin Laden is dead, presumably killed by the US military. Now, I know Bin Laden did horrible things, but I find it strange to really celebrate his death, it is only a symbolic victory, and an extremely minor one at that. Bin Laden no longer really had any power, and the forces the US is fighting against are deeply entrenched and will go on just fine without him. I suppose the reason for the sudden resurgent patriotism, back slapping and yee-hawing is that he's finally getting what he deserves, but he could never really pay for the things he did, and neither can so many others, on all sides of the conflicts going on today, who are responsible for human rights abuses but continue to live and work in the public with impunity. I think it is actually unfortunate that he's dead, that we couldn't take him alive and make some use of him, but then, it's not really in the interest of those in power to have him or any of their other enemies actually speak, as was the case with Saddam I have a feeling the US just wanted Bin Laden out of the way as soon as possible.

Now that Bin Laden is dead, I think it's likely that he will become a Martyr, there will be demonstrations and perhaps more violence briefly, and then things will go on as they were before, revealing once and for all the extent to which the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan never really were about getting those who perpetrated the 9-11 attacks. The conflicts we are in today represent a continuation of US foreign policy as it has pretty much always existed. The US is in the Middle East to protect its economic and geopolitical interests, which it will do it at any costs, and it will use whatever excuses it feels are necessary to justify its actions to the watching international community.

To those "realists" who think that these are matters of national security, and that these conflicts are necessary and cannot end yet, I would like to ask, what put the US in the positions it is in today in the first place? Why are our energy needs an urgent matter of national security? How were things allowed to get this bad? Why is the Middle East so unstable, violent, and undemocratic? Why is Iran so desperate to develop its nuclear capabilities? Why is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so seemingly impossible to end? It would only take minimal amounts of research to implicate the US as the primary force behind the genesis of the problems it is today fighting against, and the events now are the beginnings of future conflicts we can only begin to imagine.

I don't want to be a kill joy, and I do understand the feelings of those thousands of people that rushed to Ground Zero and to the White House to celebrate when the announcement was made, and the site of people coming together as they haven't done in so long makes me warm and fuzzy on the inside, but even in this moment, and perhaps especially in this moment, I think it's imperative that people remain critical. This "historic" event takes place in a wide historical and political context, and it will be used to manipulate those same cheering people who so clearly just want a break.