osama bin laden

Today, President Obama gave the order for US Special Forces to attack and kill Osama bin Laden, which they successfully completed, and they took his body into custody.  Eight years to the day after President George W. Bush gave the Mission Accomplished speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, falsely declaring the end of major military operations in Iraq, Osama bin Laden has been killed.  President Obama, in his address to the world announcing bin Laden's death, made it clear that America's pursuit of justice for the 9/11 attacks had never wavered, despite the years that have passed.  Specifically and symbolically, justice has now, finally, been served.  US military might has been reestablished, and America has proved itself capable of enforcing the retribution it promises for attacks against us.

But.... As much as I think the world is better off without Osama bin Laden here plotting terrorist attacks, I don't think celebrations are exactly in order.  This is a wonderful step towards dismantling  al-Qaida, which is important, but our next steps must be in the direction of rebuilding, of finding ways to peace and understanding.  I mean this with respect to the most serious of national security interests; our next major goal must be to dismantle, not any regime or organization, but the idea that the West is the enemy of the Arab world.  There is change, hope, and energy sweeping across the Arab world.  Now is a critical time to shape that change, to steer it in the direction of peace, of democracy, towards building a global community.  We are safest when there are not groups of people so disenfranchised and impoverished and brainwashed that they are filled with consuming hatred of our entire nation.  Let's work towards not giving them reasons to hate us then.

When humanity is seen as the strongest common factor between all the nations of the world, then we actually have a fighting chance at tackling some of the challenges we face globally.  We have enough problems ahead of us without war being one of them.  Here is where some will laugh at the naivete of wishing for a world without war.  But I think I am entitled to laugh back, at the smallness of their limited imaginations.  Is it so hard to envision a world where humans do not kill each other?  We are the only animals who purposely kill our own species, and we do it on a frightening scale.  Can't we do better?  And more importantly, where will we end up if we do not at least try?