Tuesday 3 May 2011
Osama Bin Laden
In 1969 two Americans were landed on the moon and there are still people, the head of science at the last school at which I taught is one of them, who believe it was all faked. How long will it be before the capture and death of Bin Laden attracts similar conspiracy theories? By "burying" the body at sea on the pretext of avoiding the creation of a shrine the Americans have destroyed their best evidence. They may soon find this last error to be worse than the first.
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But it is likely that there would have been conspiracy theories anyway. I actually think that this was a good idea, as it takes away a focus. I also think it speaks of great humanity that Bin Laden was given a ceremony (of sorts), and 'buried' within 24 hours of death, when a baser reaction would have been to treat the body with triumphalism, and purposively not dealt with it according to Islamic law and custom.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been even better to have captured him alive and made him stand trial. I wonder if this was attempted but turned out to be not possible. Unless it was attempted there is a bit too much of the gung-ho Wild West about the episode.
ReplyDeleteWho knows whether what we read is true. I agree with your post entirely, and have read he was shot, resisting arrest. Which is mighty convenient, but could also be what happened.
ReplyDeleteI fear that if he were to stand trial, we'd have had waves of targetting of any facility he was held in, probably the kidnapping of high-value individuals in order to ransom for him or to be killed in revenge attacks, just to start. Not saying capturing him alive was a bad idea, but it's certainly a lot simpler with him gone.
ReplyDeleteAs for the 'arrest' - I think it's vastly presumptive to conclude it was gung-ho, playing into stereotypes of Americans as that does. I don't suspect for a moment that this was a man who was going to stick his hands in the air and come quietly - such an abject coward as uses human shields; as exhorts others to take their life in the name of their cause but jealously protects his own; as conducts civilians against unarmed civilians; as safeguards his life whilst bombs drop on others in the search for him - I highly suspect such a man was not going to be apprehended at any cost.
Well, Chris, as Ben Hardy says, "Who knows whether what we read is true?" We're now told that Bin Laden was unarmed and that his wife was in another room, not used as a human shield. Originally we were given the impression that President Obama and others had all watched it blow by blow on television screens: now apparently they only saw the helicopters land and take off.
ReplyDeleteI suspect this web will get more and more tangled as time goes on.
I have to say my opinion has changed since my last post. Whatever happened over there (and as I say, I find it hard to hold the idea of his execution in contempt) it appears that yet again, Obama has screwed this one up. He really is turning out to be (as I predicted prior to his election) a very poor President for them; too reminiscent of Blair for my liking. The mishandling of the information and the facts in this, one of the most momentous acts by the US on foreign soil of the last decade, is beyond abysmal. It does nothing to engender trust in the US at all; and frankly I feel when the world's most powerful democracy and advocate of freedom is morally diminished, we are all diminished.
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