Naom Chomsky: My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death

We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden’s, and he is not a “suspect” but uncontroversially the “decider” who gave the orders to commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region.

There’s more to say about [Cuban airline bomber Orlando] Bosch, who just died peacefully in Florida, including reference to the “Bush doctrine” that societies that harbor terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves and should be treated accordingly. No one seemed to notice that Bush was calling for invasion and destruction of the U.S. and murder of its criminal president.

Same with the name, Operation Geronimo. The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying bin Laden by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Comment: On my way to Joburg yesterday I heard a news report that said a German judge had laid a criminal charge (complaint) against the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, for saying that she was "glad" that Osama was killed.

The judge, Heinz Uthmann, argues that Merkel's statement was "tacky and undignified" and even illegal since Merkel was essentially endorsing a "homicide". 

Her gladness can also be seen as a classic case of Schadenfreude (pleasure drawn from the misfortune/tragedy of others).

Merkel, who is facing criticism inside her own party for her comments, is now found to be backtracking from her glee.

At the very least the charge should be seen as a civilized defense of the rule of law.  No matter how one feels about Osama it is becoming clearer that his killing was not in keeping with international law.

That Obomber is going on record to spuriously claim that Osama was brought to justice for 9/11 is a conniving campaign lie.  Osama was not charged for 9/11 crimes by US authorities (see FBI website).

The right and legal thing to have done would have been to bring Osama to a court of law to face formal charges.  His fate should have been a matter of law not cowboy politics.

Chomsky is right about the mass murderer G.W. Bush and his accomplices, including Britain's Tony Blair.  If anyone, let alone Al- Qaida, were to assassinate Bush/Blair there would be an indignant uproar.  Yet the US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, on the African continent and elsewhere have taken hundreds of thousands of lives and not a whimper from those who extol the death of Osama.

I am disgusted by the US and have been so for a very long time.  I am not alone in my disgust.  Many sane Americans are similarly disgusted and also ashamed of what is being done in their name (like Obomber trying to kill American citizen Anwar al Awlaki in Yemen on Thursday).

Some American liberals (an increasingly tired version of conservatives) can't find the courage to call Obama's killing of Osama an extra-judicial act.  Instead, most of them agree that "he had to be taken out" if even a few of them are uncomfortable with the mob dancing in the streets.

What kind of depravity is that?  How decent and moral is their version of liberalism?

The farce that is America and its politics is making a mockery out of civilized norms of justice. 

As it stands now he was killed offering little to no resistance.  His body was desecrated and hidden to hide the truth about his death and life.

The myth that is America is crumbling.  Those vile and cowardly American racists who anonymously write here daily and rant against me, Islam, black folk, Native folk, are nothing short of irrelevant.

The processes of history are greater than the idiots who are fighting violently against their inevitable demise.

It is a painful recognition that the world will never be free if the US is allowed to continue its imperial domination of all things human.

As Obomber kills more innocents in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Yemen he is proving that there is very little decency left in that rogue state.

Onward!