After the chanting…

Okay, this one won’t be too popular.
Not to put too much of a negatory vibe on the whole deal, but watching a bunch of college kids go all Fiesta Bowl nuts in front of the White House at midnight Sunday and listening to pandering politicians jump for joy over killing a person—an unquestionable bastard no doubt—is a bit uncomfortable. It’s not a play-off game in Madison Square Garden. It’s supposedly bigger and the sports mode just doesn’t feel right.
Few in this country are mourning for Osama bin Laden. There is a definite sense of relief that after ten years, the world’s most powerful nation was able to assassinate that ass****. But a national celebration of killing just rubs me the wrong way. I understand the enthusiasm but want our crowds to be better, a lot better, than the mobs I saw on TV celebrating when Americans were killed on 9/11.

Despite a small pack of Republican presidential candidates who can’t seem to acknowledge Barack Obama was even in the loop, the president and a tight group of patriots pulled off a mission that was actually accomplished. The story reads like a spy thriller and ends the same way—in mystery.
The government kills the world’s most wanted terrorist after a dramatic nighttime raid and then disposes of the body hours later in the Arabian Sea? Why wouldn’t conspiracy theorists have field day?

Osama bin Laden’s killing by a handful of U.S. Special Forces, in the small picture, is considered a win for the good guys. Coming ten years after 9/11 and 15 years after Bin Laden declared jihad on the United States, the guy got what he deserved. He declared war first.
But, by the way, that war isn’t over. Listening to how a smart group of intelligence officers and a band of 15 Special Ops soldiers completed the mission, can we not reevaluate our strategies and consider different ways to fight this war?
In the bigger picture, this country has itself started a couple of wars in haste and vengeance that drained well over a trillion dollars from the national treasury. That was money that went into guns and bribes for politicians in Kabul instead of places like your kids’ classrooms, our roads and bridges and alternative energy programs that might have helped wean this country off oil.
Now, if the reason our soldiers went into Afghanistan was to find bin Laden and chase al-Qaeda out…that has been done, in Pakistan. What reason is left to remain in Afghanistan and Iraq? Let us as a country not just celebrate a death but take time for some reflection…and get the hell out of those two quagmires.

A couple of other news reports that bothered me this week…
* “U.S. Capitol Police put on a conspicuous show of force Monday morning with 10 vehicles amassed near Constitution Avenue with their lights flashing and doors and trunks open. Officers armed with automatic weapons kept watch on every vehicle that passed.” That brings to mind Egypt or Iraq more than America. Police armed with automatic weapons patrolling our streets does not bring me comfort. That seems more like a victory for the dead guy.
* “Three of Gaddafi’s grandchildren, an infant and two toddlers, died in Saturday’s attack instead.” Killing bin Laden is one thing. Killing three children as collateral damage is another.
Those two reports just don’t seem that “American” to me. Between chants of “USA! USA! USA!,” those college kids who gathered early Monday morning at the White House might take a breath and think about the bigger picture and their future.

President Obama on Monday declared it “a good day for America.” It may be. But it is also a day to ponder. A better day for America might be when our troops are brought home from Iraq and Libya and Afghanistan. A better day might be when Guantanamo is closed. A better day may be when money from your taxes goes to a classroom instead of another Tomahawk missile.
A much better day will be when America can efficiently maintain its security but refocus on its principles—shining things like individual freedom, respect for the rule of law, fairness, liberty and justice for all—and not just celebrate killing some evil bastard and dumping him into the sea.
We can be better than that.