It was a bit reminiscent of a decade ago; people in the streets wrapped in stars and stripes, the strains of God Bless America, but this time with triumphal shouts and exhibitionism common to World Cup soccer championships and less frantic roaring around in SUVs festooned with Old Glory. Dong dong, the son-of-a-bitch is dead. Osama sleeps with the fishes. If revenge is a “dish best eaten cold” this one had been cooling for ten years, left by Bush who returned to burgers at the ranch.
And so it was left to be Obama’s coup; a man with cellar ratings for anti-terrorism and defense—despite keeping virtually the entire Bush apparatus in place—and facing an upcoming election with dismal domestic economic numbers. Those were not the only reasons for taking out bin Laden, but a triumph wouldn’t hurt. It was a risk, it could have bombed, but he took it and Republicans now have to deal with the President’s first evidence of audacious decision-making. The bump will last a while, but Obama’s melanin level will outlast it and racism will triumph the triumph.
A local political scientist proclaimed bin Laden a colossal “failure.” I disagree. I believe he was successful beyond his wildest dreams. Sure, he was really fortunate that he had Scalia and Thomas to give him Bush and Cheney, and they paid off like a lucky Lotto ticket on the three planes of 911. They put the country on “code Orange” and played the fear factor to ignore the U.S. Constitution for years. But that was only for starters. By enabling an idiot and his evil genius operator in a climate if fear he has come close to bringing down—surely seriously damaging—the boastful world’s No. 1 superpower. The “off the books” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, the escalating debt, the torture, Guantanamo, the tax breaks for the rich, the economic meltdown—even, subsequently, the election of the first African-American president and the resultant exposure of America’s ugly inveterate racism—all owe some credit to Osama bin Laden.
Obama’s “hope” was supposed to “change” all that and drive out nearly eight years of fear and moral meltdown. His election promised a sea change, a return to reason and rationality, to a foreign policy based on mutual interest rather than strictly American national interests backed by military bullying. We need not recount how much of that hope was smothered in the ludicrous attempts at détente, the gutting of public policy, and the downright kowtowing to the Republican leadership. Rather than using his historic election to change America’s course back to its principles, Obama transmogrified into a Bush III.
Whacking Osama bin Laden does not countervail those failures. It remains to be seen whether this exercise in decisiveness, in audacity, will be reflected in a similar spirit and courage in domestic policy making, whether it will signal the beginning of the end for the destructive apparatus of the Bush-Cheney era, whether we will begin to witness the strong leadership in liberal and progressive policies that his words evoked but his deeds lacked. Or will this event be played for political advantage and photo ops and fade as a forty-eight hour news cycle.
Osama is dead; long live Obama. But if Obama does not lead us out of the Bush-Cheney legacy then he leaves Osama’s work intact and fear will continue to trump hope.
Thanks to getting himself whacked Osama might just give Obama another (term) chance to become the “man who changed America.” Obama will be a lame-duck president and perhaps emboldened to be the “audacious” deliverer of “hope” and “change” he has thus far disappointingly proved not to be. Or, he will just continue to be the man of lofty words and mediocre deeds, and Osama, fish food though he may be, will retain the title of the “Man who changed America.”
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© 2011, James A. Clapp (UrbisMedia Ltd. Pub. 5.4.2011)