The Bin Laden Raid

by C. A. Jones

Congratulations to President Obama on a daring and successful raid upon what turned out to be the headquarters of Osama bin Laden. In this country and abroad there is relief at the dispatch of a renowned terrorist. The president has been duly rewarded by plaudits, pundits and polls. Republicans, with their thunder stolen, are in confused disarray.

Is this, however, good? Is the threat vanquished, or is the many-headed hydra of international terrorism moving to reappear?

In the face of seemingly universal approval at home and abroad, the editorial staff at Robbinsense is ambivalent, but we have bemused consensus.

The United States of America has been struggling with a persistent disease for many scores of years. This insidious disease, like a narcotic, seems to make us feel good until we break out in a cold sweat, with eruptions of rage, violence, trauma, a festering sore. It remains hidden while migrating below the surface and leads to insanity.

The latest significant eruption within our borders occurred on 9/11/01 in New York, leaving a gaping pock on the land. While the sore has healed, we are burdened by PTSD and fear of recurrence. Has the killing of Osama bin Laden cured our trauma? We think not; bin Laden will be replaced by another zealot, filled with hatred and driven by revenge. Our ship of state is the mighty eagle, too cumbersome to strike at a swarm of robins, pecking in flight…she must attack from a vantage point.

For a persistent cold, your doctor may prescribe drugs, likely a placebo, to ease your symptoms while your cold runs its course. Colds are that way. But with a serious disease do we ask our doctor to treat our symptoms, or do we look for a cure?

Osama bin Laden, friends, was a symptom of our disease. We can salve our wounds by killing him, or his successor, but this is no more significant than taking an analgesic to cure a runny nose. It sates blood-lust and generates political capital. In a sense, bin Laden was a palliative, a distraction, an evil face that our leaders used to avert us from facing the true demon: the motivation for 9/11.

Our disease is a collective mental disorder; it’s the notion of “American Exceptionalism.” See June, 2009. AE is the idea that our nation is not constrained by the rules of international conduct which govern other nations. AE is perpetrated by our own unscrupulous leaders who want to pursue ill-conceived, political objectives; it is ignored by our “liberal” press because our press is not liberal; it’s accepted and applauded by us because it’s fun to think we’re special and it’s a convenient excuse to hide from responsibility for the misdeeds of our government. AE is so pervasive in our culture that a raid such as this in Pakistan doesn’t even raise eyebrows. AE is so “accepted” that a significant group of our (Republican) presidential hopefuls raise it as campaign strategy---claiming its legitimacy, that is!

For Republican presidential candidates the phrase American Exceptionalism has taken on almost talismanic qualities. Newt Gingrich’s new book is titled, A Nation Like No Other: Why American Exceptionalism Matters. “American (sic.) the Exceptional” is the title of a chapter in Sarah Palin’s book America by Heart.

And woe be to those who take issue with the phrase. 2008 Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee declares, “To deny American Exceptionalism is in essence to deny the heart and soul of this nation.” 2012 Presidential candidate Mitt Romney insists, “The reorientation away from a celebration of American Exceptionalism is misguided and bankrupt.”

This is Sarah Palin’s opinion? Mike, Mitt: you want on board with that? Who are we that these candidates think they can extol as virtue that which infects our culture to the core?

You might say, “Yes, but OBL was a really bad guy---a terrorist, an international criminal. Ok, but our government harbors such people in this country. We know of one living openly in Texas with a record of international crime, torture, terrorism, with the blood on his hands of 100 times more innocents than OBL could imagine. Would it be ok if one of our “allies” launched a paramilitary attack on our soil to remove this menace? We say, “No.” If you agree, then how can we claim that the raid in Pakistan is ok?

Our action in Pakistan, a sovereign nation, a “presumed ally,” is an expression of American Exceptionalism. AE is the disease that invites OBL and all of his successors to wage war on us, at home and abroad.

We need leadership in the political sphere to pull us back from the abyss. We need leaders who will take us into the heart of the international community as a constructive and respectful neighbor.

Given the scope and success of his raid, we applaud President Obama for his dignified bearing in the wake of the attack. We cringe at even the thought of the speech that President Bush would have delivered, filled with smirks, snickers and bravado. But with political capital in hand, we ask the president now for good leadership. There is clearly no hope from the other side of the aisle.

C. A. Jones is a Robbinsense staff writer.