Last night, my sister called me around 10:00pm. She said that the President was going to make an announcement and the press was pretty sure it was the death of Osama Bin Laden. I was already in bed at the time and didn't feel like going out to the living room to watch something I would undoubtedly see on TV for the next three weeks. I know it probably sounds unpatriotic, but I honestly didn't think it was that big a deal to drag myself out of bed after I'd been fighting sleep for several hours. If I remember correctly, she said she thought it would be an historic moment (and for those that remember 9/11 it is) and I said that I didn't think it was something to celebrate as, undoubtedly, someone else would rise up to fill his shoes.
Thinking about it today, I have to maintain that feeling. It's kind of like fighting the Hydra; cut off one of its heads and three grow back in its place. We're not dealing with a typical army/enemy country, we're dealing with religious fervor and that is much harder to quell. There will be some kind of threat to the US to retaliate for this death.
People are celebrating this death the way the British People celebrated the wedding of their Prince. It sickens me a little. Part of me is glad that we can close this chapter in our history and hopefully move on from it stronger than we were before. I remember what it was like on September 11th and I can imagine that this is a huge relief to the survivors and the families of those killed during the attacks. But I can't get over the fact that, as a country, we're celebrating a death.
Celebrating a death I get - but the revelry in the streets and what have you - no I don't get that. We're not celebrating a death - we're celebrating a huge military victory for our country. We've finally gained some ground in our war on terrorism. However, for th epeople dancing in the streets, score the point, don't spike the ball.
ReplyDeleteAnd it was 10:45 I called you.
But more than that - I think it's an important symbolic victory for our President as well as an important symbol of closure for the victims of 9/11. For a decade we search for the mastermind and can't quite get our hands on him. This shows that we didn't give up and we do care as a country.