Ever since the internet rose to become our main source of news coverage, we have been screwed. I say this because news stories are no longer researched and thought out as much… they are rushed into electronic print in an attempt to be first. That has become the goal… shoot first, don’t even ask questions later. Sadly, this is what we have come to expect.
What we do NOT want is what our own government gave us in the days after the Bin Laden news broke… misinformation, changing stories and an almost brand-new scenario every single day. What should have been the ideal, made for the big screen story became a convoluted, broken mess.
The main idea should be that this mass murderer is dead. Period. It should not matter whether he died armed or unarmed. I know his followers need a more mythic, martyr-like ending to perpetuate their myth of lies and hate, but really… should our soldiers have said… “Okay, we’ll draw on the count of three, here’s a gun.” Come on. I just wish the White House had a better and tighter control of the message. It is a bit disgraceful.
The bottom line is that when the Hitler or our times is in front of you and you have a loaded weapon, you kill him. He did not need a gun in his hands… the gallons of blood he already had on them is enough.
With Bin Laden’s death we have a great opportunity. We cannot back down, nor can we negate our resolve, as there are even more vicious animals out there… However, we can take full advantage of the pro-Democracy movement that is sweeping many previously locked down nations, by forming the right kind of partnerships with the right kind of people… those who truly want a better life and are not so blindly filled with a hate of Americans and Jews.
I find this particularly troubling… rebels and protesters taking to the streets, finally realizing (or at least being able to express it) that it is their own leaders who have raped and pillaged and taken advantage of them… but then calling those leaders “Jews” or “American puppets,” as if those are the worst possible things they can think of. You hope that they have finally seen the light, but instead they continue with their anti-Semitic, Anti-American vitriol. When will it end?
The idea that Pakistan is so angry with us is a joke. I mean, I do get it. This is a country, who like Saudi Arabia, needs and certainly wants to play both sides of the fence… get a ton of cash from the US… show us one face… and show the radicals another. It is bullshit. The fact that we give one billion dollars to a country who so obviously harbors terrorists is insane.
Then again… they have nuclear weapons and that fear keeps our policies in one particular line. World politics is crazy.
At some point we have to take a stance, the right stance, and put human rights and freedom and virtue above and beyond anything else. This is an ideal, of course, and does not work in a world economy or a world of nations run by oil and cold, hard money. Greed and the power of money is a sad and harsh reality.
But we must find those nations and those people who do not embrace terrorism, who do not strap bombs on their children, who do not hate for hate’s sake, but want to make their lives and that of the world better. We must all become more accepting, more enlightened and recognize and cherish the differences we have. Like the Dalai Lama says, we all have the same human experiences and the same desires for happiness and there is no single religion that can and will fit us all… so go beyond tolerance and find true and respectful acceptance.
Instead of swearing revenge for Bin Laden’s death, avenge it by giving your people food and education, things for their mouths and souls. Put shoes on their feet, water on their lips and love in their hearts.
Moderates of the world unite. There are like-minded people all over the universe. Let our legacy be peace and unity, not destruction.
