“I’m not that concerned about him”
by digby
So Bin Laden is dead. I’m a big opponent of the death penalty, so I would have preferred to see him him tried before the world court, but I honestly can’t say I’ll lose any sleep over his death. His video after the the 9/11 attack, in which he was so pleased that they were able to kill so many, was validation of his sickness.
But as I watch the news media behave as if the entire trajectory of Western Civilization has been altered by this one act, I’m reminded of President Bush’s statement on March of 2002:
“We haven’t heard much from him. And I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don’t know where he is,” Bush said during the 2002 news conference. “I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run.
“I was concerned about him when he had taken over a country,” Bush continued. “I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban. But once we set out the policy and started executing the plan, he became — we shoved him out more and more on the margins. He has no place to train his Al Qaeda killers anymore.”
There’s more than a little bit of irony in this being announced on the day of Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech. Turns out they were both living in mansions.
Obviously, there is symbolic value in killing him and there are many people, particularly in NYC and DC, who are very relieved and happy tonight. And it was the greatest manhunt in history so you have to give the intelligence and military people credit. But I’m fairly sure that the death of bin Laden, however satisfying, has not actually changed the threat from yesterday to today.
This business of having “the body” is reminds me of the ancient practice of putting heads on a pike to prove the death of the enemy. I suppose that’s human on some level. Still, it’s macabre.
.