The American media has been joyous about the U.S. trained SEAL guerillas who murdered an unarmed man in cold blood. The are described as heroes, supermen, and courageous, but one national correspondent got it right. She said they were assassins.
Some questions:
If Bin Laden could have been eliminated with 25 commandos, why have 4800 Americans, so far, been sent to a desert to die?
The commandos were wearing headset cameras that filmed everything in their path and sent pictures back to their superiors. We're told that no proof of Bin Laden's death will be released because the gruesome nature of the pictures could further inflame his supporters. But not all pictures were taken after his death. Where are the pictures of Bin Laden as he was being confronted by his executioners before he died?
At the time the commandos broke into his bedroom, Bin Laden clearly posed no threat. He was not armed and did not resist. He could have been taken alive, except that, as CIA director Leon Panetta finally admitted, the commandos were there for only one reason: to kill him. Why?
The SEALS ransacked the house, taking hard drives and papers, looking for anything that might turn into usable intelligence. But the greatest source of information had been standing right in front of them before they double - tapped, a quaint term for shooting twice at point blank range. Was this their way of discouraging Bin Laden from talking? If given the chance, what might he have said?
In all parts of the civilized world, nations pride themselves on their judicial systems and the rule of law. Observers are starting to question the legality, as well as the means, of America's extrajudicial administration of "justice' in a sovereign foreign state.
And to what end, exactly, was the deadly Rambo exercise? Terrorism is much more likely to emanate now from Yemen than anywhere Bin Laden travels. Are we safer with Osama out of the way? Well, no one believes that. Even Joe Lieberman warns us to expect retaliation.
The murder of Osama Bin Laden is a win for the Obama reelection campaign, the budgets of Homeland Security, TSA, and the military which now has a victory to shore up lagging support at home. The losers are all other domestic programs, from an underfunded educational system to our tattered social safety net -- victims of the Bush-Obama wars as surely as our soldiers have been.
Which brings me to my next question: Exactly who are the people willing to become trained assassins? Can they ever be safely released from the indoctrination of the lawless U.S. military back into the general population? Others must have the same question because the administration now finds it necessary to spin them as lovable, somewhat scruffy, all-American guys-next-door who love their wives and play softball with their kids in their spare time away from work.
Administration spokesmen have been anxious for us to believe that torture works. They tell us that that's how they got the break leading to their prey. The fact that they found the name of the courier who led them to Bin Laden's compound in documents released by Wikileaks has received almost no mention in the media. That bit of information seems to have been disappeared.
As the insurgency in Libya geared up a few weeks ago and crowds gathered in the street, three snipers began to fire from the roof of a nearby building. From reports, the shots were remarkably effective, killing a number of the unsuspecting in the crowd below with precise bullets to the head.
The American media blamed the Gaddafi forces for the sniper fire, but wait a minute. That third world country has an unsophisticated, third rate military. What are the chances that it could or would provide care, feeding and training for snipers? Plus, Libya has no recent history of militarism.
Where did those assassins come from?
Have we said a final goodbye to the illusion of America's moral superiority?
Who are we?
