Bin Laden Meets The New American Lynch MobIt turns out after all these years all they had to do to find Bin Laden was check the roster of the Islamabad Jihadists basketball team where he was the starting center. Of course, nobody for a thousand miles would breathe a word of it, that is just how much they hate America in that part of the world. In any case, all these Middle East occupations and wars have always been and remain destructive and counterproductive even to our own interests. So we start with the action page.
End The Wars In Afghanistan And Iraq:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1078.php If nothing else, the demise of Osama bin Laden again raises the question of what exactly we think we are doing occupying so many countries in the Middle East. Surely not to fight terrorism. Instead, terrorism is driven precisely by these same kinds of operations. There is nothing at the end of this road but utter ruin for our own country, unless we somehow find the political courage to change course. So we speak out again, and will continue to do so.
The only thing good the right wing has had to say about the Bin Laden operation is that this action by Obama was just a continuation of the policies of George Bush. In one respect that is completely false. It was the policy of Bush NOT to pursue Bin Laden, but rather to use him as an excuse and justification for all the wars they had on their pre-existing agenda. The last thing the right wing wanted to do was to actually catch Bin Laden.
But in a larger sense, and sadly, they are correct in that Obama has done absolutely nothing to change anything of substance whatsoever about American foreign policy. The wars and occupations continue and have even been enlarged, run by exactly the same people who started them in the first place, with all Bush holdovers otherwise still in actual charge. And nothing about that will change until so-called liberals and so-called progressives stop giving Obama a pass when he just acts like a smarter version of George Bush.
By way of a disclaimer, our position is that we do not support the death penalty, and in particular we do not support the institution of war as the mutually preferred cultural institution for settling differences among nations. So we can only be appalled by the raucous celebration of what now appears to be the summary execution of a man already in custody.
It is perfectly obvious that there was never any intention of bringing Bin Laden back alive under any circumstances. If we have learned nothing else from recent history, it should have been anticipated that all we were told night one about the Bin Laden raid were just made up lies and fairy tales. What was portrayed initially as a "fire fight" might have consisted of one person firing back. And once that person was taken down, what proceeded after that can only be described as a precision "execution" operation of every adult male present.
None of this should surprise anyone. We have had people in custody now for upwards of 10 years already who will NEVER have an actual trial. So why would anyone think we would bring Bin Laden back for a trial? The clear order was to kill him on the spot regardless. Is there really any doubt of that? Bin Laden was an important long term CIA asset who turned on his handlers. A talking Bin Laden in custody was the last thing they could afford.
The word used most often night one in the corporate media about the Bin Laden killing was "justice". "Justice had been done," they said. There may be some primitive, ultimate "justice" in it. But the most appropriate choice of word, if our language has not been completely corrupted already, would be "revenge". Justice would be to put the man on trial before the world. But there is no law, even of war, that would permit the summary killing of a man already subdued and in custody, regardless of his crimes. Isn't that what the bad guys do?
"We don't need a trial!" Where have you heard those words shouted before, outside of the scene of lynch mob in a movie? The lynch mob is a grand old American tradition, and unfortunately not one to be proud of. The fact that historically those lynched were most likely innocent, where as Bin Laden proudly professed to his own guilt, changes nothing about the process. What value is a justice system if it could not convict someone like Bin Laden?
And anyone celebrating the manner in which Bin Laden was killed may in fact be celebrating the demise of that justice system MORE than the demise of Bin Laden himself. Meet the New American Lynch Mob. And here is the Facebook link for the End The Wars In Afghanistan action page further above. [Facebook] Action Page:
http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/acti ... m=pnum1078 And this is the Twitter reply for this same action @cxs #p1078
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.
