Friday, May 27, 2011

Osama is dead, why the details?

I'm sorry if I offend anyone, many things are meant to apply to a general group instead of individuals.

This is pretty belated, I know, and if anyone saw my other post, you'll remember what I said about people forgetting some things quicker than others and/or the press going on to the next big thing in present life instead of beating to death one issue.  I wanted to say somethings about the killing of bin Laden since I had all these ideas swirling around for a while on the different issues with it that people keep raising for reasons unknown to me.  They're unknown because him being dead was enough to elate me in this War on Terror even before I heard it was US Navy Seals who took him out. 

So when some people I knew well and trusted well were pushing so hard to vilify our government worse than bin Laden himself I had a serious "WTF" moment.  Mind you, the degree of vilification varied as did the aim.  All of them also did not question for the same reason and were sometimes content with him being dead but for the sake of principle prodded but even then, there were times I thought it was too much.  Questioning is an important part of being a citizen in a government run by the people and for the people.  Respect however should still be maintained.

To start, I just want to say I wholeheartedly do believe that US troops went into Abbotobad, Pakistan and secretly took out Osama bin Laden.  Its true that our government has given us many reasons to not trust them in the past century but seriously, if you're just going to assume everything they say is a lie, don't be involved in it.  It is similar to criticizing something you don't like or are not interested in or don't know jack about, why are you making a fuss over it?  Also, people in our government are always changing, you can't attach the same transgressions to one person 30 years ago to another person today that holds the same office or is part of the same body.

Branching from that, there are 3 main bodies in the government with many different federal agencies with varying agendas and degrees of power in the various facets of running the country and our operations over seas.  If someone lies and tells it someone else to tell it someone else, how can you hold all of those people responsible if you yourself could easily just be stuck in that rut?  If there was a lie or breach of trust from our government, it is absolutely unfair without knowing the details of where it could have originated to point fingers and vilify people.

It is also always better to have a positive outlook on the nature of people because if you stop giving them a chance, they will head down a one way road to self-destruction.  Its like Lex Luthor on Smallville when Clark trusts Lex less and less for no reason other than him being just as curioius about the other person as it is vice versa.  The only difference was that Lex was smarter and had more means to find out what he wanted.  Similarly, God forbid, our government could go straight down that path of violence and rebellion because there is no trust left between the people and the government; I pray everyday for the welfare of our country and its citizens.  If you think that was a convoluted analogy, then you're probably right, the point is treating someone or something like a villain will eventually make it that way.

Anyways, lets say that the US didn't kill Osama and that he died some years ago of whatever illness they were suggesting he may have died (note "may" have died, not he "did" died of those illnesses as people keep inferring; I never remember hearing any confirmed reports of his death till recently).  Who cares?  He's died, isn't that what matters, isn't that one of the goals we were aiming for in this War on Terror because this is the guy who was the face of one of the worst attacks on US soil in history?  It also doesn't matter how he died because as history has shown, even monsters don't always die a fitting death; in my belief, for some cases it is a case of God letting their evil deeds add up for a greater punishment in the hereafter or there are other reasons, many of which will just digress this topic so I'll just continue.

Then people will bring up the point that they're angry because the government lied about it.  Again, who cares?  Mind you, if I ran the government, I wouldn't lie (if you think I'm naive, maybe I am but I pray that God gives me strength to keep that fortitude) but maybe that's why I would not be good at running this country.  It is the nature of this country to have to lie occasionally despite what any politicians say and it isn't always for personal reasons either.  There is such a thing as "need to know basis" which people who are so bent up about revealing other peoples faults publicly forget about and sometimes put the lives of a few or even hundreds and thousands at stake or higher stakes in the case of terrorism today. 

If Osama died of natural causes or some stupid death not by US hands, it would be elating to hear he died but not as elating as hearing that US Navy SEALs got the job done.  Its like the "Inglorious Basterds" ending to Hitler as opposed to the real ending in history, all the persecuted minorities in Europe were happy when they found out he died but they'd be partying like crazy if it happened like the movie.  So people who have been going all out about the possibility that they're lying to us, you ever wonder maybe they had good intentions at heart?  Maybe they wanted to raise the morale of a country that's at war in two countries, just got out of a war that lasted almost a decade, and hated by the people of many others?  Why can't it just be taken as that?

Going into the issue itself a little, the number of reasons for why it doesn't make sense that Osama was there and the US killed him probably equal the number of reasons a lot of the conspiracies don't make sense.  People with theories have all these doubts which they believe gives the truth and in the process of coming to those theories, they don't realize how many more doubts those theories have.  In essence, those who are going to doubt will be like that always regardless of what evidence is given to them.  They've lost their faith in the government enough that just questioning all out is meant to prove that view.  I genuinely believe that no matter what the government said about his death, it would be seen as a lie in some shape or form by lots of people anyways and probably the same exact people.


God bless America and let it not perish from this Earth.

3 comments:

  1. I think the point you make in the sixth paragraph is a very good one. You don't say so explicitly, but I get the impression that you sense a kind of quietism in the cynics dismissive attitude toward the government. If our system requires active participation to function, then it is served equally poorly by blind gullibility and cynical distrust for the sake of distrust.What you get at with your analogy with Luthor is that the cynical posture may even be worse since it both interpolates (implicitly licenses) the gov. as nefarious and discounts the potential for public outrage when "the lies" are revealed. When you have a higher opinion of what the government ought to be, you stand on firmer ground when you condemn this or that particular transgression. At least this is what I got from argument - which I thought was excellently made.

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  2. I agree, if you think something's wrong in this government, do something about it however little and even if it doesn't work out, don't be discouraged b/c odds are, there many others like you out there doing the same thing. After all, it was Jefferson Smith I think who said lost causes are the best causes to fight for.

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  3. I think the real details we want are related to a different case. Why? oh Why H-bhai!

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