Do not call me anti-Patriot just because I loathe the Patriot Act or because I am not really in a celebratory mood. Osama bin Laden, the shadowy head of a non-government entity that had an undefined role in various attacks on American civilian and military targets has reportedly been shot and killed in his compound in Pakistan by a Navy SEAL.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, who founded the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and merged it with al-Qaida in 2001, is still at large. His family was reportedly killed in airstrikes by United States forces in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is dead, but there is still rampant hate for American policy and action on a global scale. Al-Qaida will continue operations within radicalized sects of the Muslim world and continue to attempt to branch out that sphere of influence.
This is still a huge news story, but all information on governments must be treated with skepticism, and any information having to do with people that apparently dislike those governments must be treated with even more scrutiny.
I am not a conspiracy theorist in the sense most people would think. The term has too negative of a connotation to ever get my point across. That would be like telling the old men at the Republican fundraisers I attended last summer that I agree with some socialist policies. I am simply not naive enough to think we are receiving the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth from a presidential address on television.
Osama bin Laden has been on the FBI’s most wanted list since 1998. With all our military and economic might, it took this long to find him. Various wars are being conducted currently. One in Afghanistan with bin Laden and al-Qaida as rationale and one in Iraq with a chunk of the population thinking it was a 9/11 retaliation. Now bin Laden is dead. We still have people that hate us in the world. They are not all completely unfounded and the reaction to that hate should not be unmanned CIA drone strikes.
What now is the rallying cry for the American population? What are we fighting for? Freedom? Democracy? I think not. There are countries all over the world where we do not give a damn about their freedoms. I am glad bin Laden is dead. Maybe now the anti-war sentiment will grow and these wars that perpetuate our military industrial complex can cease to be for a bit.
Thousands upon thousands are dead, now just add a 54-year-old radical Muslim to the list. Many younger radical Muslims are already on that list, as well as non-radical Muslims of all ages. Also add millions and millions of dollars to the coffers of the people at Lockheed and Martin, Boeing, Sikorsky, and Haliburton.
Forgive me for my lack of celebration or outpouring of “support” in Facebook posts, Quinnipiac.
