Osama Bin Laden killed by US ground troops in Abbottabad, Pakistan, announces US President Barack Obama on 1st May, 2011.
I can’t say I’m displeased. In fact, like most people around the world, I feel a sense of relief and justice. He, too, was a monster who needed to be killed. For decades he exploited mujahadeen, mostly poor, uneducated young men and women who were falsely led to believe that by becoming martyrs they would go to heaven and leave the world that never cared for them. He used Islam falsely, as a tool to convince his troops of his righteousness, though entirely contradicting the core of the religion and the basic rights and freedoms every person should have.
So now the USA is celebrating, chanting, rejoicing. They are the sung heroes, the world police, the ones responsible for bringing terrorists down.
And the hypocrites. Other terrorists, just as bad if not worse than he was, are sitting in fancy offices in high places, watching unearned money roll into their pockets, announcing what a great day for “America” and “democracy” this is to become. They are behaving and speaking as if Bin Laden acted alone, with no US government back-up. As if the same mujahadeen Bin Laden worked with weren’t CIA-trained to begin with. As if the Bin Ladens weren’t such close buddies of the Bushes. “Osama Bin Laden is DEAD!” they yell, they clamour, as if it will change anything or bring true justice to his victims. As if anything will improve. As if the hundreds and hundreds of men and women who served him, and who can assemble in a few short days through the incomprehensibly large channels of underground communications that Al Qaeda must count with, are not waiting for the order to retaliate. They now have the perfect excuse to execute vengeance.
What will really change? Most of the plots he partook in were most likely masterminded by insiders in the US, the same assholes who will simply find new puppets to continue their dirty work. Corruption will remain, violence will escalate.
Al Qaeda isn’t any weaker and members of the US government, secret services and agencies, and the elite, aren’t any less involved in the psychological war on terror against their own people; the war of scaring the people to the point where they will agree to anything. Even invading and destroying other countries, clearly under false pretences and manipulated allegations. They will continue to build up monsters so they can take them down, appearing like the righteous heroes they need to look like to garner all the support they can get to continue in the self-destruction of the world and the amplification of their bank accounts.
War is their most lucrative industry and they need to keep it flourishing. They will continue to do anything they deem necessary in order to get petrol, building contracts (which, of course, require demolishing of entire cities so the rebuilding is worth while), a glossy varnish of a just cause, and most importantly, the people’s blind support to do anything seemingly just to protect “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
They are clearly allowing no freedom, intellectual or physical, to the people, and have also manipulated them into believing that dying for one’s country in unjust, uncalled for, illegal wars, is the only form of bravery.
I can imagine George W Bush shedding a tear for his close friend right before he said, “This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world.” And then I can see him laughing because, not only did he manage to say it with a straight face, but also to include himself as one of those people who seeks peace. I do hope that one of his statements comes true and back to haunt him in the near future: “No matter how long it takes, justice will be done,” he said.
I wonder…who’s next?
Laura Restrepo Ortega 