Menopausal Stoners Preliminary Response to OBL
Osama Bin Laden is everywhere this morning, but from the announcement Obama made last night, I don't think the troops will be going anywhere any time soon. We're fighting Terrorism after all, not a single Terrorist. And besides, Michael Chertoff (former head of Homeland Security) is still trying to make some dough off those naked scanners. We can't have everyone relaxing now that special ops got OBL.
Personally, I think all military action should be like that concentrated operation. I don't see how blasting Afghanistan to bits and killing civilians with predator drones helps anybody at all whatsoever - but a specific target and a concentrated effort makes sense. I'm a pacifist, for sure, but that doesn't mean we don't need the military. To me, the raid on Bin Laden is precisely what the military is for.
Dick Cheney, on the other hand, thinks the military is for building and/or protecting infrastructure and territory so that we can get the dang lithium out of the mountains in Afghanistan and keep it for ourselves. What good is being a superpower if you can't occupy a country and take all their resources? If I'm remembering correctly, Donald Trump recently made comments to that effect. He's just Dick Cheney without an editor.
Maybe Osama Bin Laden has been dead since 2002, like some people claim. Maybe the World Trade Center was an inside job. What do I know? I'm a preschool teacher who believes that conflicts can be solved with words, so clearly few grown-ups pay attention to preschool teachers.
I'm pretty sure it was a good idea to deal with his body as covertly as they killed it since the media frenzy surrounding a burial at sea later this week would be beyond absurd. I've got big visions of commentators comparing his shroud to Kate's dress as they hang out of helicopters with fancy lenses from behind the "no fly zone" surrounding an air craft carrier. A 24 hour robot camera undersea, like they had focused on BP's gusher, watching the body drift in the current until it settles somewhere and is covered by shrimp. Some fool would make a special report about the kind of shrimp eating Bin Laden and Fox would say it was cat fish. And then somebody would try to sell us the fucking Cat Fish - so you could eat Osama for lunch, if you could afford it.
This society is seriously fucked up.
Personally, I think all military action should be like that concentrated operation. I don't see how blasting Afghanistan to bits and killing civilians with predator drones helps anybody at all whatsoever - but a specific target and a concentrated effort makes sense. I'm a pacifist, for sure, but that doesn't mean we don't need the military. To me, the raid on Bin Laden is precisely what the military is for.
Dick Cheney, on the other hand, thinks the military is for building and/or protecting infrastructure and territory so that we can get the dang lithium out of the mountains in Afghanistan and keep it for ourselves. What good is being a superpower if you can't occupy a country and take all their resources? If I'm remembering correctly, Donald Trump recently made comments to that effect. He's just Dick Cheney without an editor.
Maybe Osama Bin Laden has been dead since 2002, like some people claim. Maybe the World Trade Center was an inside job. What do I know? I'm a preschool teacher who believes that conflicts can be solved with words, so clearly few grown-ups pay attention to preschool teachers.
I'm pretty sure it was a good idea to deal with his body as covertly as they killed it since the media frenzy surrounding a burial at sea later this week would be beyond absurd. I've got big visions of commentators comparing his shroud to Kate's dress as they hang out of helicopters with fancy lenses from behind the "no fly zone" surrounding an air craft carrier. A 24 hour robot camera undersea, like they had focused on BP's gusher, watching the body drift in the current until it settles somewhere and is covered by shrimp. Some fool would make a special report about the kind of shrimp eating Bin Laden and Fox would say it was cat fish. And then somebody would try to sell us the fucking Cat Fish - so you could eat Osama for lunch, if you could afford it.
This society is seriously fucked up.
posted by PENolan at
6:40 AM
9 Comments:
//To me, the raid on Bin Laden is precisely what the military is for.//
yupperz....Bush couldn't figure it out. Now let's try to build a 'Peace"
Supposedly they've already dumped the body in the sea because Saudi Arabia didn't want anything to do with his body.
aWol didn't want to catch OBL because he needed a "Boogieman" to keep people scared. As long as there was this "Boogieman" out there it gave him cover to play war as long as he wasn't personally involved.
But now that we've made OBL into a martyr I wonder what the future will bring??
Yep.
(Oh, and Trump, Cheney sans editor - that was funny. In a we're so fucked up kind of way.)
I wish we could all be happy and say hurray! The war is over. Our children can come home. Alas, I feel nothing at all really. To me the world is the same, just as it was the same after that royal wedding thingy. Thanks for putting into words what many of us are unable to express. Marie Gage
The military buried him at sea because it was in keeping with Muslim beliefs that one must be buried within 24 hours. They certainly did not want him in the ground somewhere that extremists could turn into a shrine. The shit storm that will ensue, wherever they dispatched the body will inflame many. The sooner that the White House releases the documentation (photos & DNA)to establish the authenticity of his death, the sooner we will be able to silence the doubters (read: right winger,birthers, etc.) who undoubtedly will fire back their disbelief. This will happen only because their guy couldn't - or wouldn't - dispatch with this tyrant. As another commenter said, Bush/Cheney wanted to keep alive the 'boogey-man' so they could enrich themselves and their friends in the military-industrial complex.
My fear now is that this killing will certainly be retaliated by the still fervent terrorists. I'm particularly concerned because I live within less than five miles of a major naval base on the east coast. Unfortunately, I've lived all my life with this fear, having lived through the Cuban missile crisis, not to mention the overwhelming and obvious bump up of security in this area after 9/11.
Your last sentence said it all. While all the mainstream coverage on Friday and Saturday was focused on the 'royal wedding', few paid attention to the devastation that was happening in the South. At least Obama and Napolitono (sp?) had the good sense to travel down here to assess the damage. No fly-around on a helicopter a la Bush, but an on the ground inspection of the chaos and loss. At least this administration realizes that real people - American citizens - live in the South, and they are worth helping. A sentiment that was totally lacking in the previous administration.
I both cried and cheered last night when I heard the news. I stayed up and listened to our President, who did a magnificent job of relaying this news. He accomplished what the former administration didn't - and did not want to. The Right is running scared right now, because this incident almost makes Obama undefeatable. And it should. Yes, all of us that supported him and believed in him have been disappointed. But, as you've said previously, even the most inspired and talented person that aspires to public office is hindered by the reality of politics, and the burden of running a country.
If I wasn't a 'post' menopausal stoner, I could hardly cope with what's happening in our country.
The absurdity that caught my attention was how our burying him at sea was an affront to Islam. As if what OBL did to all those innocent people wasn't an affront to Islam? He didn't deserve respect or any type of burial after the atrocities he caused. The nut jobs can call it a holy war, but anyone who believes their god is an almighty, supreme being should be smart enough to figure out, god doesn't need your help fighting any battles. The "holy war" is all in your heads. God didn't ask for your help and doesn't need it either.
Right On, Vancouver! You and Pat think about that god stuff a lot, too.
Hey joanneinjax - I'm so glad you weighed in on this one The thing I like best about the internet is that it gives all us stoner and hippy types an opportunity to connect. Teabaggers connect this way too, though, which is why it helps to be a stoner. Cool Etsy shop there at your link
Marie, it gets oppressive sometimes, doesn't it?
You know, Jennifer, I do think we're fucked up collectively, but there's beauty in individuals all around us all the time. Thanks for turning me on to the Exploring Beauty challenge.
Kulkuri, aWol? Now THAT'S funny. Some reports suggest that the Arab world isn't nearly as interested in OBL as we are. Either way, the Military Industrial Complex seems to find a reason to fight. We could be in Libya for years and years chasing Gaddafi now.
okjimm, I couldn't agree more. There is an opening here, if anyone will take it.
the ones that think it was a big scam and he's not dead, or he's been dead and they just brought him out for now.? make my ass hurt.
Your ass? Even with all that Taboo? That's serious, Granny
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