With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 around the corner, I've been getting a little nostalgic, and realized I need to address something kind of important.
Bin Laden's death is a great victory and a reason for celebration. So why don't I feel like celebrating? Have I become so jaded that I take no pleasure in the justice for the 2000+ victims of this coward's atrocities? I don't think my mind can even process the magnitude of this event. In point of fact, what I'm most emotionally charged over is that this gave Obama a boost in popularity that he sorely needed.
But that's not really what I want to talk about. I'm not so much a hater of Obama, as I am of politicians in general. He's just the most current in a long line of power mad snake-people. what I really want to address is my own reaction to the righteous killing of a mass murderer. And to be honest, I'm not sure what to think. I don't know if it's because I'm tired, disillusioned, or as previously mentioned: jaded, but for some reason I just can't recognize this as important news.
Yes, Bin Laden is dead. He deserved to die. I'm glad that he has vacated this mortal coil. However, I am not the least bit encouraged by his demise. The fact that he's gone doesn't change the other less convenient facts. "What facts?" you might ask. Well, how about that we are in two different half-hearted armed conflicts with countries halfway across the world which we are scaling down and preparing to retreat from? Actually, things only seem to be getting worse as our military loses money. Our military loses money because our country is losing money, so naturally our leadership is proposing to take more money from us. They claim this will help them pay down our debt while maintaining defensive strength, but the long and short of it is that we all get poorer, and the military has even less to fight with because of our poverty.
That's another thing. This bastard's death has me thinking more about the other problems we face rather than the tasty morsel of victory and vengeance we've been handed as a people. That's messed up. I should be reveling, dancing on his God-damned grave, and smearing bacon grease all over his corpse (you know, because Muslims can't touch pigs?) Except he doesn't have a grave... or a corpse. Instead of properly enjoying an exciting afterglow of a highly anticipated terrorist lynching , I'm caught up in the frenzy surrounding our national debt and am barely even paying attention to the level of popular patriotism among my comrades. If I had to guess, I'd say it's pretty low. It simply is not as cool to be an American now as it was when I was a kid. When I was a kid G.I. Joe was cool because nobody made a homoerotic movie about it, where Marlon Wayans got to dress up as a power ranger. Stupid.
If only they'd release the damn video. I'm still pissed about that. If I at least got to see the demise of my enemy I'd feel some sense of absolution. That's the way it worked with Saddam anyway. When his neck snapped, I heard the collective sigh of an oppressed people. As it is now, I'm really just taking it on good faith that Osama's head-shot happened at all. How could I really know that he died? This could all be a big setup to get people worked up and patriotic so they don't pay too much attention to all the mounting domestic problems. Granted, this isn't all that likely, but the idea still circles the back of my thought process.
I find myself needing to get fired up over something. Being an American used to mean endless possibility, opportunity, and prosperity. Now it seems to mean endless disenchantment and meaningless drudgery. The politicians don't listen, the debt never goes down, and the people are more concerned about the NFL lockout than the so-called Arab spring, which could potentially liberate or indoctrinate and enslave nearly a billion human beings. I hear "America" and I try to envision WWII vets. That makes me feel better. Anything that comes to mind about America from the last 10-15 years only serves to make my blood boil. We as a nation are backsliding on patriotism. Or maybe it's just me. Either way, I needed a win, I got one, but I find I can't enjoy it. I blame the government.
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