Last night, my parents called me to turn on the TV. Pres. Obama was to give an important speech on national security, and everyone was speculating on the topic. I turned on CNN, but I also opened Twitter and immediately saw everyone retweeting the news “Osama Bin Laden is dead, and the U.S. has his body in custody.” Slowly, more and more information was leaked — all on Twitter before CNN. Twitter has completely redefined the way we receive and disseminate news, and last night’s social media activity was a testament to this.
I was relieved that Bin Laden has finally been brought to justice, and I was happy to hear Obama’s speech. It reflected humility, national pride, a sense of togetherness. Obama was concise and powerful, and he honored those in the military who have given their lives to fight the war on terror. I especially was grateful to hear him say, “This is not a war against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He was a mass murderer of Muslims.” The American public needs to hear this, as we are in the throes of growing Islamophobia.
But more than anything, I was highly disturbed by photos and videos I saw of the gathering crowd in front of the White House. We should feel a sense of somber relief and reflection, and we should remember the lives lost in this war. But we should not be screaming in joy, euphoric, celebrating death and bloodshed. We should not be singing and dancing in the street. Yes, Bin Laden was a horrible person, but this was an extrajudicial execution. By celebrating loss of life, we ourselves lose our humanity. I agree with David Sirota, who writes in Salon:
For decades, we have held in contempt those who actively celebrate death. When we’ve seen video footage of foreigners cheering terrorist attacks against America, we have ignored their insistence that they are celebrating merely because we have occupied their nations and killed their people. Instead, we have been rightly disgusted — not only because they are lauding the death of our innocents, but because, more fundamentally, they are celebrating death itself. That latter part had been anathema to a nation built on the presumption that life is an “unalienable right.”
But in the years since 9/11, we have begun vaguely mimicking those we say we despise, sometimes celebrating bloodshed against those we see as Bad Guys just as vigorously as our enemies celebrate bloodshed against innocent Americans they (wrongly) deem as Bad Guys. Indeed, an America that once carefully refrained from flaunting gruesome pictures of our victims for fear of engaging in ugly death euphoria now ogles pictures of Uday and Qusay’s corpses, rejoices over images of Saddam Hussein’s hanging and throws a party at news that bin Laden was shot in the head.
This is bin Laden’s lamentable victory — he has changed America’s psyche from one that saw violence as a regrettable-if-sometimes-necessary act into one that finds orgasmic euphoria in news of bloodshed. In other words, he’s helped drag us down into his sick nihilism by making us like too many other bellicose societies in history — the ones that aggressively cheer on killing, as long as it is the Bad Guy that is being killed.
I refuse to cheer on killing, even the killing of someone as evil and reprehensible as Osama Bin Laden. War begets war and violence begets violence.
There is another reason that the rejoicing of Americans is premature. The death of Bin Laden may be symbolically important, but it will not change things. We are still entrenched in the war in Afghanistan; if we withdraw troops, we risk destabilizing the country and allowing extremist and insurgent groups to take hold in the country. This war will continue, for better or for worse.
“Thousands of people die every day and he is just one of the thousands,” said Zaikira, a 49-year-old money changer. “It won’t change the war. We have had fighting in Afghanistan for centuries, and it will continue for hundreds more.” – The Guardian
And while Al Qaeda may be weakened by the loss of their leader, they are most certainly not dead. As Daniel Byman writes for Foreign Policy, we would do best to remain cautious about Al Qaeda’s next moves:
As any expert will tell you, one of bin Laden’s biggest successes is creating an organization that will survive him. When bin Laden and a few associates founded al Qaeda in 1988, the organization was tiny and relied on the Saudi millionaire for the bulk of its funding. In subsequent years the organization has grown to support insurgents throughout the Muslim world, issued propaganda swaying the views of millions and, of course, murdered thousands through terrorism and its participation in civil wars. Thousands were asked to formally join the organization, and tens of thousands received training. So al Qaeda will not collapse overnight.
Indeed, in the short term it is possible that terrorism may increase. Some jihadists may seek revenge, lashing out at any target that is convenient. Al Qaeda’s remaining senior leaders may also try to orchestrate attacks to demonstrate the organization’s continued relevance. They may hurry up plots already gestating or hit unprotected — so-called “soft” — targets that take little preparation to strike.
So instead of celebrating and taking to the streets, or proclaiming that the war on terror is dead, let us congratulate our President for this achievement, while also keeping in mind that death and violence in any form does not deserve reactions of cheering and jingoistic fervor. Let us keep in mind the work that is to be done. Let us acknowledge that this is a symbolic accomplishment, but it unfortunately will not result in significant policy change in the short run.
Let us stay humble, and stay human.
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