American Vengeance

(Comment made on another blog about the death of bin Laden)

I don't sleep any better because bin Laden is dead. If he died in his sleep my level of comfort would not have changed. If he died in his sleep, he still would have been revered and memorialized by his avid followers and maybe some of the marginal ones too. For them he was and is legend.

And I don't sleep any better because he was shot down--"extreme prejudice", murder, assassination---it doesn't matter what it's called. It was revenge for all intents and purposes. Charles Bronson could have been the leader of Seal Team 6, but of course Chuck Norris is the latter day version. Or maybe Mr. Bardem in "No Country for Old Men".

He should have been captured and the "free" world should have borne the price of his incarceration and all the inflammatory press that goes with it, and all the risk that crazy terrorists of the "Free Osama" variety would try to avenge with their strategy of "resistance". Like the Guantanamo situation, America is uncomfortable with long, long incarcerations. They are troublesome news items that build political resistance over time. And if the endpoint of the incarceration is an execution, it can only engender a long discussion about capital punishment and victim's rights. That isn't telegenic. It isn't "cut to the chase" journalism. It just isn't 'satisfying' except in a dramatic sense. The fervor that could have been bullet-in-the-head (or syringe in the vein) revenge gives way to a droning conversation about justice and human rights when the incarcerations are long and well-observed.

I generally agree with what has been said by others about the impact of media. I think my country has always had a hair-trigger mentality and likes it that way. The speed and breadth of our ability to hold-up the media mirror and reflect it as we "live the part" only speeds the process of believing our own press, stroking our vanity, enlarging our mythology for succeeding generations. Everyone always wants to justify his own personal violence. The more extreme, the more energetic the justification.

And for those who believed the nightmare would end with bin Laden's death, I hope they had their moment of relief and revenge. I hope they can rationalize it sufficiently to sleep at night. But my guess is they won't sleep any better just because he's dead.