What sort of individual would have offered thousands of innocent people the choice of burning to death in an inferno or jumping from buildings famous for their height? At first, bin Laden denied involvement in, or even prior knowledge of, the attacks of a decade ago. But videotapes of this comic book villain were soon discovered as he gloated in the aftermath, boasting that the attacks had exceeded his expectations. He only expected the topmost floors of the towers to collapse, he said on tape to a confidant. He and cronies dined and cheered as entire buildings fell, thrilled as those killed multiplied.
Just as Japanese Americans bore the brunt after Pearl Harbor, unjustly conflated with the militarists of the Empire of Japan, so Muslims became identified by many Americans as terrorists.
There are differences, to be sure. The bigotry of today does not have the cover of official action [1]. In those days, Americans of Japanese descent were rounded up wholesale and herded into concentration camps. Today, Americans who worship God at mosque have been subjected to harassment, discrimination, and occasional violence, but President Bush, followed by President Obama, maintained a distinction. We are not fighting against Islam, but rather against terrorism.
Rage is often misdirected. It is a sad and cloudy part of the human experience. A deed so monstrous deserves authorship from a larger evil than mere evidence can show. It has been that way through history. Those of us who felt the pain of assassination knew on a visceral level that some widespread conspiracy had to have been at play. How else to explain the loss of a President Kennedy, an almost President Kennedy, and a prophet of human rights in the person of Martin Luther King? The mafia, or the CIA, or the USSR, or the Klan had to have been behind it.
It has been the same in the years since 9/11. A madman in a cave on the other side of the world was too small an object for righteous rage. And so, Muslims became targets, and Arabs, and any who looked to the ignorant as if they might be in a suspect group. A patriotic gesture of defiance, the building of an Islamic center by Americans to fight the lie that terrorists presented, the lie that terrorism was a justified response to America’s attacks on an entire religion, was itself attacked by American bigots as offensive. And so the terrorist lie was given the thin veneer of plausibility. Yes, said some, America is indeed on the attack against Islam.
In fact, the great majority of those killed by this man, those who died on several continents, were Muslims. The main targets of his wrath were those who followed the wrong strain of Islam. Only Sunni Muslims were fit to live, and of those, only those stern enough to join the anger.
American rage, with its lack of focus, did find its way into official circles. The madman in a cave on the other side of the world, even a wealthy madman with a gang of thugs, could not have performed such a murderous scheme with such precision. Some state backing had to have been in play. And so an evil dictator with no connection to the attacks became the prime suspect. Find the evidence, demanded some at the very top of American government. And any wisp became proof. Iraq was attacked, and bin Laden escaped in Tora Bora, as frustrated CIA personnel screamed in vain for forces.
This week, we celebrate this death, this person who is as removed from us as are the Nazis of generations ago. In our celebration, the obvious question is rhetorical, its meaning lost. What sort of individual would have committed such crimes? One answer may be any individual who becomes so devoted to an idea that mere people are unimportant in comparison. When a cause erases all compassion, when the human heart becomes cold, a religious devotee can too easily morph into a sociopath.
We celebrate the removal of this person, joining in communal chants. Politicians fight for a place at the head table, in perpetual maneuver, with endless positioning. We and those like us, they say, had some connection with this death. Congratulations on being such a good follower of our lead, Mr. President.
I am glad bin Laden is dead. I should be glad for the children who would have been murdered and now may not be. I should celebrate for justice now finally served, for evil being set back, for the demoralization of others who would murder. I should celebrate for all the right reasons. And I do.
I also do what Christian leaders tell me not to do. I gloat. I do not mourn, except in a purely theoretical sense, a lost soul, an opportunity, however faint, for repentance, for redemption. I do not feel that, I do not see it. Even through a glass darkly, I do not see it.
On a deep and personal level, I am glad at this killing.
I am not glad that I am glad.
But I am glad, nonetheless.
(Posted May 3, 2011)
1. The bigotry of today does not have the cover of official action. True in 2011
I am glad bin Laden is dead.
I am with you there. He was guilty of many crimes, some of them greater than 9/11. He deserved justice, not mercy (in this case even more than most, those two things are mutually exclusive). Justice was served, for the slaughtered Shi’ites of Afghanistan as much as for the slaughtered office workers and airline passengers of 9/11.If he had a chance at “redemption”, whatever that means, he did not deserve it.
The capacity for rage and hate is born in us for a reason. There are cases where those feelings are the appropriate response. Some people are simply evil, and bin Laden was evil.
That evil person called Bin-Laden is dead, as befits him.
But the other more benign faces of evil, facilitators of mass murder by military aggression, with torture on the side, will not see justice. In fact, they were rewarded with a second term.
The blood on Bush/Cheney hands shall be washed by complacence and nationalism, as future wars for oil, based on lies, have not been deterred.
The darkness of the American soul has been unleashed. And enough Americans have embraced it even further in its Orange fascist and rising white nationalism. Across the land, domestic white terrorism is now a greater threat to Americans than al-Qaeda.
The world has learned that Americans are becoming lesser the good guys, and more of the problem. Being good half the time won’t win new friends or allies. The dominance of corporatism and militarism over democracy is rotting our nation’s soul, as it poisons the planet and insidiously commodifies and subsumes humanity.
It may already be too late for our slumbering national conscience to awaken sufficiently.
A reminder: https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/WC091201.html
“The cult of the omnipotent state has millions of followers in the united States. Americans of today view their government in the same way as Christians view their God; they worship and adore the state and they render their lives and fortunes to it. Statists believe that their lives — their very being — are a privilege that the state has given to them. They believe that everything they do is — and should be — dependent on the consent of the government.” ~ Jacob Hornberger
Utter nonsense. The terms “worship” and “adoration” have definitions and the religious sort is all the more specific. The belief that a so-called statist (usually just a person who thinks that the government can solve more problems than the next guy does) has in his government does not begin to approach the level of god worship.
Furthermore, not once in my life have I met someone who believes that his life or very being is a privilege granted by the state or that everything he does requires explicit consent from the government. Perhaps if this Hornberger interacted with actual people instead of the strawmen in his head, he would have a more realistic take on others than this sort of ridiculous exaggeration that we have come to expect from the Right.
In fact, the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear about people who believe that their lives are a privilege granted by the state or that everything they do must be approved by the state is conservatives who support drafts or other sorts of forced military service, oppose assisted suicide, and seek to imprison millions for harmless activities. All of these actions suggest much more clearly that our government owns our lives.
“It may already be too late for our slumbering national conscience to awaken sufficiently.”
Indeed our national conscience has already been so perverted and corrupted to the point that some people can make moral equivalencies between terrorists with al Qaeda and a dully elected president with congressional backing prosecuting a war. Now reasonable people can dispute whether that war was good or even necessary, but the fact remains that it was supported in a bipartisan manner by our elected officials in the House, Senate, and Presidency.
Now it has gotten to the point where any opinion differing from one’s own on the left is cause for cries of racism and white nationalism. Evidently to some people, half of the nation is “woke” and the other half are nothing more than deplorable racists. One wonders how President Obama ever managed to get elected in this country.
Mike,
Thank you for framing my conscience as “perverted and corrupted”. This clearly indicates your authoritarian viewpoint.
Yes, I’m comparing 9-11 with invading a country that had nothing to do with 9-11. Why should’t they be compared? Both are morally reprehensible, according to my values. I have no idea what your values are.
Your conclusion leaves some serious factors out of the equation. One factor is this. If a war is not good, and not necessary, but initiated anyway, then it becomes a serious moral transgression, doesn’t it? Or maybe not, in your unperverted and uncorrupted conscience.
“Bipartisan” has nothing to do with morality. (Most Democrats opposed it.) The lies and propaganda also present an immoral basis for the war. The same is true for torture and incarceration without charges or evidence. Is this all just some “woke librul” concept? If so, then whose values are truly flexible and loose?
Thousands of dead innocent human beings in Iraq are evidence of evil on both sides. Why can’t you accept that? In the case of the Bush/Cheney war “The cult of the omnipotent state”seems to sum up your values, unless liberals do it, of course. THEY hate America, and have no values whatsoever, or so I’m told by those with superior moral standards and an unperverted and uncorrupted conscience.
According to Mike’s comment, attacks on our country would be much more morally acceptable if only they were explicitly approved by some sort of democratic government. Bin Laden’s big mistake was not getting the proper clearance! If he had gotten that, why, he could have killed thousands more.
Mike,
I’m trying to be understanding, and would like to focus on our emotional reactions for a moment. I admit I might tend to be a smart-ass after a glass or two.
I’m not certain about why you brought up racism and white nationalism. It may, however, indicate a psychological defense mechanism attempting to cover a wee bit of racial/cultural animosity.
If it eases your sense of victimhood on this issue, I assure you I bring no accusation of racism to counter your smearing of my conscience. It is a disagreement that has nothing to do with race.
Then again, from the authoritarian viewpoint, compassion and conscience, like psychology and philosophy, are just more “woke librul brainwashing” from the commies controlling our institutions of higher learning.
Never mind. You’re probably Right.