I was still living in Vancouver, BC when I saw the twin towers attacked and fall. The first thing out of my mouth was "Holy shit!"...the second was, "Oh oh..." In an instant, I pictured the roll out of the American exceptionalist jingo-isms and media driven war machine with the CNN strident military music and graphics pushing for bloody revenge.
And of course that's exactly what happened...never mind that we were witnessing a perfect example of "what goes around, around comes".
Not long after that I visited my family in Florida and on the ride to my parents place my Dad mentioned that the good effect of the 911 events had been that it had brought out a national solidarity and pride the US people hadn't experienced in a long time. I replied that that resurgence of zealous nationalism was exactly what scared me the most because it allowed for a mindlessness that could likely lead the country into a police state situation. America, love it or leave it to the max.
I see the same ugly head reared now in the triumph over the execution of a single diabetic old man who plays only a symbolic role in the modern terrorist movement.
I shed not one tear over the death of such a fanatic who caused such human damage, but I despise the "USA USA USA" chanting mind-set and irrational police state he provoked from us as a people.
Eugene Robinson is one of writers and newsman I respect most and I understand his sentiments revealed in the article below exactly, but..... I agree even more with the commenters to the article afterward.
Proud of the United StatesBy Eugene Robinson
This really is one of those moments when there are no red states or blue states, just United States; no MoveOn progressives or Tea Party conservatives, just Americans. Triumphalism and unapologetic patriotism are in order. We got him.
In the days to come, there will be time to consider the nuanced implications of Osama bin Laden's demise at the hands of the CIA. Will anti-American anger threaten to send unstable Pakistan out of control? Will al-Qaeda's younger, more decentralized leadership feel not bereft but empowered? In a few days or weeks, I might care. But not now.
Tonight, all I can do is think back to Sept. 11, 2001. I was working out at the gym when I heard learned that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I decided that I'd better head in to work, and on my way to the shower I passed a television set where a crowd had gathered. I didn't have on my glasses, so I had to get up close to see that the second plane had hit the second tower. I threw on my clothes and ran the few blocks to The Washington Post. Crossing 16th Street, I passed a man who was shouting, to anyone who would listen, that something had happened at the Pentagon.
Tonight, I remember watching speechlessly as the towers fell. I remember leaving work, many hours later, and seeing the plume of smoke still hovering above the Pentagon like a taunt. I remember the anger I felt, the sadness, the resolve. When George W. Bush visited Ground Zero and picked up that bullhorn to give voice to a nation's anguish, I was proud.
And tonight, I am proud. "Obama Nixes Osama" would be an appropriate tabloid headline, but I have to give props to Bush as well. We got the son of a bitch. Well done. Well done, indeed.
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The comments:
torreseouellette
Yes, let's just sit back and bask in our American exceptionalist--jingoist--triumphalist--fundamentalist fervor. Let's not ask questions. Let's not think about the consequences, just follow along stupidly to the steady drumbeats and changing of American exceptionalism! Let's not be reflective, let's not mourn another human life or the possibility that this death may not reduce the risk our soldiers may be subjected to, but in fact increase it. Let's not think at all. Let's not learn the lessons we should have learned in the days after 9/ll and the crazed nationalist cries of "WMDs", "revenge" and "USA! USA!" Let's not think. That's the last thing we should do...
rjpal
The real problem was never Bin Laden. The real problem has always been America's tendency to deal with other nations with bombs and weapons rather than friendship and respect and help. Americans do not learn foreign languages, they do not learn the history of other nations and they hardly know the geography of our planet. Among developed nations, America devotes the lowest proportion of its GDP to foreign aid, and yet Americans live in the illusion that foreign aid is a major portion of the US budget.
Americans assume that everyone all over the planet really wants to imitate the American way, which consists these days of high rates of divorce, high rates of abortion, innumerably many men in prison, and American children lagging behind in education.
With such a depressing record, what is the point of patting ourselves in the back that we, after more than nine years of effort, finally killed an elderly man suffering from diabetes?
cul
torreserouellette,
You're exactly right, but they won't hear it over the flapping of all those American flags. Nor will they hear rjpal's comment above.
I'm glad the religious zealot has been taken out...I'm always happy to see religious zealots of any stripe extinguished. Zealotry in any form, including the those who push American exceptionalism, are the most dangerous humans of all.
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