Osama Bin Laden is Dead!

It would appear that Osama Bin Laden was shot in the head yesterday and captured. If you want an extraterrestrial view, I have one for you. Yet another moment in time where I see people doing something and it does not compute. Seeing all these people chanting and being proud Americans (only at special American occasions such as this) boggles the mind. Watching the initial news report on MSNBC they continuously said, "You will always remember where you were when you heard this news."

No you shouldn't! You remember where you were when 9/11 happened, you remember where you were when JFK was shot and most likely you remember where you were when Princess Diana died. I say this not because you should remember where you were or any of these events should have effected you personally (unless they actually did), but due to the culture we live in and "the way we feel" it just so happens that these big unfortunate muck ups engrave a time in our memories.

Remembering where you were when they killed a terrorist is not really a defining moment. It's a moment. People were standing in the streets chanting as if it was V E Day! Apparently for most Osama was the face of the bogeyman. We've caught and killed the bogeyman, you can go to bed now. Does the war now end? Can we retire the body scanners and begin carrying full bottles of liquid on board? Shall we hold hands and get along with each other?



No, no, no and no to infinity, which is exactly why the death of one does not compute to chanting victory. We have not snuffed out terror. Osama was one guy. A leader of a group. There are other leaders of other groups and surely there is a runner up leader of the group Osama lead. You don't get to kill the bogeyman, because the bogeyman is everywhere and can not be defeated.

The conspiracy theorist hidden inside of me can not believe it took ten years to find someone - anyone. It is along the same lines of the government not knowing what they are doing. If I am to believe the facts presented it would appear the government can not govern, can not control its people, has absolutely no secrets and has so little track of people it takes 10 years to locate them. The defense that arises is that he was a highly protected individual and kept off the radar extremely well. Yet status quo says otherwise because you aren't supposed to be able to hide from "them" ever, anywhere. How can I truly believe the government is tracking everyone's every move and that we can't get away with anything if they can't find a highly protected man in a cave, in a mansion, in an apartment, in another country on this digitized planet? I can't believe that.

I've read too many declassified releases to believe "they" are as dumb as they want us to believe. Did they kill Osama yesterday? Perhaps. Did they just find him yesterday (or August, for that matter)? I don't think so. To me they've always known where he was and decided when it would be best to "get him." What is presented to us is often the carefully laid out version of truth that we're meant to believe.

It is intriguing to me how a powerful entity like a government which gives the impression that they are on top of "it" can announce something like this so proudly after ten long years of American suffering. Yes, congratulations on catching the man who hurt us as a nation. On the other hand, you did take ten years to hunt him down and if you just would have gotten around to this sooner we could have been doing something else. Of course that something else would not be dancing around with daisies, it would be business as usual of fear, worry and panic.

My entire teenage life was filled with the fear of impending war. My entire adult life has been filled with nothing but war. To think some people have known nothing but war since birth. It's unfortunate. It's not what we should be spending our time on. We can't destroy terror completely and chasing after it endlessly while tightening everyone's small bit of freedom is just not the way to go about it.