Osama Bin Laden is Dead

Good old Chomsky…

My Reaction To Osama bin Laden’s Death

By Noam Chomsky

07 May, 2011
Guernica Magazine

It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no opposition—except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards them. In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress “suspects.” In April 2002, the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, informed the press that after the most intensive investigation in history, the FBI could say no more than that it “believed” that the plot was hatched in Afghanistan, though implemented in the UAE and Germany. What they only believed in April 2002, they obviously didn’t know 8 months earlier, when Washington dismissed tentative offers by the Taliban (how serious, we do not know, because they were instantly dismissed) to extradite bin Laden if they were presented with evidence—which, as we soon learned, Washington didn’t have. Thus Obama was simply lying when he said, in his White House statement, that “we quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda.”

Nothing serious has been provided since. There is much talk of bin Laden’s “confession,” but that is rather like my confession that I won the Boston Marathon. He boasted of what he regarded as a great achievement.

There is also much media discussion of Washington’s anger that Pakistan didn’t turn over bin Laden, though surely elements of the military and security forces were aware of his presence in Abbottabad. Less is said about Pakistani anger that the U.S. invaded their territory to carry out a political assassination. Anti-American fervor is already very high in Pakistan, and these events are likely to exacerbate it. The decision to dump the body at sea is already, predictably, provoking both anger and skepticism in much of the Muslim world.

We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden’s, and he is not a “suspect” but uncontroversially the “decider” who gave the orders to commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region.

There’s more to say about [Cuban airline bomber Orlando] Bosch, who just died peacefully in Florida, including reference to the “Bush doctrine” that societies that harbor terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves and should be treated accordingly. No one seemed to notice that Bush was calling for invasion and destruction of the U.S. and murder of its criminal president.

Same with the name, Operation Geronimo. The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying bin Laden by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.”

There is much more to say, but even the most obvious and elementary facts should provide us with a good deal to think about.

Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor (retired) at MIT. He is the author of many books and articles on international affairs and social-political issues, and a long-time participant in activist movements. His most recent books include: Failed States, What We Say Goes (with David Barsamian), Hegemony or Survival, and the Essential Chomsky.

© 2011 Noam Chomsky

Ahem ! :wink:

Bin Laden lived by the sword and, surprise, surprise, that’s how he died. If you take that role you can expect consequences at some point.

I cannot however celebrate the death of any human being. The American public reaction was disturbing. I am at least pleased that we did not emulate it over here, despite 9/11 also being one of our biggest terrorist loses of life. I do however feel for the families of victims who feel a sense of relief that justice has been done in some small way, even if it doesn’t bring back their loved ones.

However just as disturbing as people tastelessly celebrating in the streets, is the American President choosing for political reasons that he wanted Bin Laden dead, despite the risk of creating a martyr. Western Europeans are not more moral when they tend to imprison rather than kill. It is common sense. A man rots in prison, you can say that it is justice and he is more likely to be forgotten, or at the very least merely pitied. A man dies in a hail of bullets however . . . . .

And why all of this moral outrage about Pakistan not knowing, and it being OK for the Americans to illegally invade their country to kill Bin Laden. Bet you don’t know everyone who lives within 5 miles of you. He was very discreet and it was hardly central Islamabad. The British army do not know everyone who lives within 10 miles of Salisbury Plain – however smart you think they are. Hell, I’m not even convinced that Obama hasn’t known where Bin Laden is for ages but only choose to kill him now, cos it suited him.

What good will come of it, knowing what people in the world already think of the Americans, and by implications, us? Precious little. Martyrdom of the figurehead? Continued terrorism because Al Quaeda is not a single group but a uniting concept for many groups? Will it stop impressionable youths from juming on the bandwagon of the fake jihad? The killing will only continue.

Sorry for Bin Laden and sad he is dead? No. Not even slightly.

Certain that killing him was the right thing to do, either morally or in practical terms? Unfortunately it’s still a “No”. The world is not a safer place.