On the Death of Osama bin Laden
So, Osama bin Laden is dead. Make no mistake about it, I don't mourn the passing of that vile, murderous fundamentalist. But equally, I don't see that there's too much to get over-excited about. And I certainly don't think that this news will will make the world safer. Let's look at why:
1. Al Qaeda has never been, and almost certainly never will be, an army in the conventional sense. Consequently, the death of its supposed leader will make little difference to what its myriad offshoots are doing at the moment. The most powerful illustration of how al Qaeda works I've come across is that it is like a venture capitalist firm; it offers funds to those operations it thinks will be most likely to succeed. Just as the demise of a leader of a venture capitalist firm doesn't end capitalist investment, so the death of the nominal leader of al Qaeda won't stop Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.
2. Besides, was bin Laden really in control of al Qaeda when he died? I find it hard to believe that he was. Being the world's most wanted man is probably a full-time occupation, and it would make controlling and communicating with a disparate and loose network of people next to impossible. So bin Laden was little more than the figurehead of al Qaeda, and a poster boy for Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. Killing him won't have stopped the fundamentalist terrorists already out there.
3. What it has done, though, is make him into a martyr. Much of what constitutes Islamic fundamentalist is a reactionary response to supposed American imperialism - cultural and otherwise. And what could be a better symbol of US imperialism that the gunning down of bin Laden? Of course, I know that the US wants to send a particular message to Islamic fundamentalist (fuck with us and we'll kill you) but I rather think those fundamentalists will have got a different message from this murder (and I use that term deliberately). That message is "the war's hotting up, and we don't want to be seen to be losing". I've read that across the world security measures are being tightened and threat levels raised. I'm not surprised. If there's one think Islamic fundamentalist terrorists are good at, then it's revenge.
4. And let's be clear: this wasn't justice; this was revenge. Justice is where you take a suspect captive, put them through a fair trial and then - if found guilty - they are punished (with the death penalty, if your country happens to have that draconian punishment and deems state-sanctioned murder appropriate in this particular case). Therefore, bin Laden's death wasn't justice. It was a summary execution. It was murder. And by all means say he deserved it, but make sure you get your terms right. Not justice; this was revenge, pure and simple.
Osama bin Laden's dead. Good riddance. But only the terminally naive would think that this actually makes the world safer. bin Laden's death is simply another moment in the ongoing revenge spiral between the US and fundamentalist Islam. The fundamentalists aren't going to give up now bin Laden's dead. In fact, if anything, they will become more determined and more resolute. This murder will simply lead to other murders.
Labels: Fundamentalism, Islam, Osama bin Laden, terrorism, War on Terror
posted by The Nameless Libertarian @ 9:09 am
6 Comments
6 Comments:
I would have preferred him to have been put on trial. If he was then subsequently executed, so be it.
Well, I remain opposed to executions and the death penalty as a concept, but a trial would have made all the difference. Shooting an unarmed man in the face just reeks of a "kill kill kill" mentality that has nothing to do with justice.
If he'd been given a trial then leaves the west vunerable to having to drag every terrorist scumbag through the courts. Whether or not the west likes to think it's at war with islam, islam is certainly at war with the west and as such granting enemy combatants and terrorists with fair trials is a misguided piece of western sentimentality that islamists will only exploit. The entire muslim world already views the west as decadent, weak willed and entirely without the resolve to defeat them, and giving Bin laden a trial would have only cemented that notion. The most natural system of justice is that which treats a man the same way he treats others, and as a figurehead of an organisation which routinely beheads innocents Bin Laden should not have expected anything other than retribution. Implying the victim is a barbarian for vanquishing the attacker is dunderheaded liberalism of the worst sort, and I really can't bring myself to agree with your softheaded appraisal of the situation.
I do struggle with phrases like "the entire Muslim world". At what point did you become a spokesperson for every Muslim out there? Did I miss a memo or something?
I'm not necessarily arguing that bin Laden should have been put on trial (I'm ambivalent on that point; my mind is changing on a regular basis); however, summary execution (which is what happened here) is not justice, just revenge. You can argue that there is a place for revenge (I know that if I'd lost someone on 9/11 then I'd be happy for bin Laden to be shot in the face) but it is worth being clear on exactly what is happening. By all means justify revenge and murder, but let's be clear that it is revenge and murder.
Furthermore, it should also be clear that killing a fundamentalist (regardless of religion) simply makes that fundamentalist a martyr. The world is not safer because bin Laden is dead. Justice has not been served. That doesn't stop you or any one else from making a case for what happened being right.
I didn't realise that an act of defensive war was "revenge and murder."
Also muslims believe the west is decadent because they are muslims, QED. One can't adhere to the principles of islam and believe the west is just dandy. Islam doesn't work that way, and neither does faith.
The mental trap you're consistently falling into is classifying a terrorist who worked as part of a militia hierarchy with military goals in the same way as an individual who went a funny in the head and ended up killing people, a la spree killer style. Bin Laden was an enemy combatant, not a lone gunman. Your assertion that taking out Laden is "murder" is crazy rubbish. He was part of an agency that killed American troops and did so as a profession.
Sorry to drag this thread on so long, but I can't let such ridiculous notions of Laden being somehow a victim go by without challenging them.
Once again, you're trying to speak on behalf of Islam, which is falling into the trap of assuming that all Muslims are some sort of homogenous group with no discernible characteristics and exactly the same positions on everything. That is, quite simply, bollocks. Some Islamic fundamentalists may consider themselves to be at war with the West (your initial assertion); other more moderate ones may dislike Western values. Some can live quite happily with (or even in) the Western world. However, to believe all of Islam is identical is nonsense.
I also don't get the idea where you think I believe bin Laden was a spree killer. My point is that he didn't command a conventional army. Al Qaeda are not like, say, the IRA. Terrorist cells funded by al Qaeda have killed US troops (and many, many others), but to see bin Laden as a military commander is far from the truth. That doesn't stop him from being an evil shit who cost many people their lives, of course, but there is a real tendency from a lot of people to misinterpret the way al Qaeda works, and that can only work in the favour of that terrorist organisation.
And yeah, shooting an unarmed man in the face is an act of murder. Given the motivation was previous crimes he committed it was also revenge. You can argue that the revenge murder was justified, but I think it is staggeringly naive to think of bin Laden's death as anything other than a revenge killing. Such an assertion does not make him a victim per se; as I have consistently said, my point is about getting the terminology right. By all means say you think bin Laden deserved to be murdered, but don't deny that it was murder.
TNL
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