Having retired early on the evening of 1 May in order to arise in time for the aforementioned godawful early train to Stresa the following morning, and not having checked the news before my departure, I was blissfully unaware of the biggest event to hit the airwaves since 9/11. In fact, the first news I heard was wholly inaccurate.
After meeting up with HWMBO and the jet-lagged group of weary travellers in Stresa, it wasn't until we reached our room that HWMBO relayed the news to me. "Qaddafi's been killed," he said. I was somewhat surprised at that; I had heard the sad news that his grandson had apparently been killed during a NATO strike in Libya's ongoing war between pro-Qaddafi forces and rebels supported by the West. To me, it is always tragic and senseless when any innocent - especially a child - caught up in power struggles is injured or killed. And much as I personally abhor Qaddafi, I did feel sorrow for him on the loss of his grandson. But there had been nothing in the reports that I had heard to indicate that Qaddafi himself had been injured. So we turned on the tiny TV set provided in our room to see whether we could discover more details.
Even though all the news reports were in Italian, it was clear from the scrolling headlines that the Victim of the Day was not Qaddafi, but the seemingly all-but-forgotten - at least by most in the US news media - Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden - founder of Al-Qaeda, admitted architect of the US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, admitted architect of the indescribably horrific 9/11 attacks among numerous others, catalyst for two major wars (although the second war was a real stretch because Saddam Hussein, for all his many grievous faults, was certainly no admirer of Bin Laden), and - too little remembered, IMO - former CIA asset from the cockmamie days when the Reagan Administration thought it would be such a great idea to arm, assist and train fundamentalist zealots to drive the Russians out of Afghanistan - was dead. Yes, those ideas certainly worked out well for us all, didn't they?
"Bin Laden uscita ..." kept scrolling across the TV screen while visibly excited newscasters reviewed the Archfiend's bloody past and the events leading to his death in Pakistan. Those early details were very sketchy and some have since proved inaccurate. Of course, because we heard everything in Italian, our versions were even spottier. Believe me, there was a rush to purchase all available International Herald Tribune issues that day and the next few! Copies of the IHT were passed around until their pages were worn through.
It has been an open secret for years that Bin Laden was living in Pakistan. The question was: with all the saber-rattling against lesser targets, why wasn't anything being done about Bin Laden? What patronage from high-ups in various governments and institutions allowed him to live, literally in plain sight, for so long? Hopefully, at least some of these questions will be answered in investigations to come.
I am very uncomfortable with the specific targeting of any individual for death - no matter how much of a fiend that person may be - and quite ambivalent about whether the actions of US Navy SEALs in shooting down an unarmed man in front of his family, especially his young children, were justified. But, try as I might, I cannot find it in my heart to condemn those actions. The man's ideas and actions were toxic, nothing short of virulently poisonous. Left alive and imprisoned for life, as would surely have been the case had he not been killed, he would have sought and used any opportunity to justify himself and glorify the odious causes that he stood for. I am glad that I did not have to make the call and I commend President Obama for having the courage to decide, even though I have serious qualms about that decision. It has been nearly 10 years since 9/11. Too many have been needlessly sacrified since that time. Hopefully, we can begin to move on.
Whether Bin Laden will be an even stronger symbol in death than he was and would continued to have been in life is a big question! There are simply too many disenfranchised, powerless, frustrated, voiceless and mistreated people in the world. Bin Laden did not really care for any of these people except insofar as they were a means to an end. Had he cared in any meaningful way, he would have used his patently persuasive talents, charisma, money and influence for good, not for evil, and certainly not to promote religious zealotry. But so long as the rest of us continue to turn a blind eye to the suffering of others, vicious manipulators like Bin Laden and his ilk - whatever their so-called religion - will find fertile ground for the promotion of hatred, chaos and violence.
May the death of Bin Laden begin to heal rather than to exacerbate the many wounds he opened during his life!
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