President Barack Obama announced on May 1, 2011 that “the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.”
In his speech to the nation late on Sunday night, the US President said that we “reaffirm that the United States is not –- and never will be -– at war with Islam. I’ve made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam.”
We all remember when President Bush used the word ‘crusade’ to describe the war in Iraq. So, implicit in President Obama’s statement is a declaration that the war on terror is not a Christian war against Muslims. No truer words could be spoken. Because there is nothing remotely Christian about this decade-long waging of war and this decade-long waging of revenge.
There is nothing Christian about the chanting of USA USA! We’re Number One! in response to the news.
There is nothing Christian about a “firefight, [that] killed Osama bin Laden and” nothing Christian about taking “custody of his body.”
To be a Christian must be to follow Christ. To follow Christ must be to live according to his command: “But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). Are all of us Christians deaf?
The Gospel of Luke indicates that Jesus goes on: “For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them (Luke 6:32).
And in case we have already forgotten, Jesus reminds us a few lines later: “love your enemies and do good to them…” (Luke 6:35).
Is it trite to trot out these core Christian teachings? I hope not.
No. Christians are not at war with Islam. Christians are not even at war with Al Quaeda.
President Obama counsels us that Osama bin Laden’s “demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.”
Whose peace?
Whose dignity?
It doesn’t add up.
The religion of domination, consumerism, materialism and empire is waging a war against the poor of the world. And the poor are losing. They are losing their peace and their dignity. They are losing their lives.
The sad fact is that Osama bin Laden was successful.
He was successful at killing 2996 innocents on 9/11.
But more. Bin Laden was successful at goading the United States into nearly tripling that death total with the death of another 5885 US military personnel in our seeking revenge through wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bin Laden was successful in turning the US into a country waging war against the Muslim nations of Afghanistan, where many thousands of civilians have died (almost none of whom have even ever heard of the 9/11 attacks or Osama bin Laden), and Iraq, where at least 104,924 people have died.
When the death of Osama bin Laden is presented as justifiable compensation for the spilling of so much blood; when the death of Osama bin Laden has cost the US $1.18 trillion—how do the numbers add up? Spending $1.18 trillion on the mechanisms of death and destruction is our decision, and impoverishes persons, communities and environments. That money is blood on our hands.
I am dumbstruck by the horrifying mathematics.
We know that 2996 people died on 9/11 from the terrorist attacks, and that is a devastating tragedy (for which it seems to me that we in the US are suffering a collective PTSD, or some kind of anti-social psychosis).
But, I am dumbstruck by the jubilation brought on by the death of Osama bin Laden.
The jubilation is a kind of sickness because it is deaf and blind to the real costs.
Our ideology that fails to recognize the organic wholeness of our planet, and of our human species blinds us to what Leonardo Boff has called the “cry of the earth, the cry of the poor.” The deaths of so many people on the road to the death of Osama bin Laden must not be forgotten– and even more these many deaths must not be celebrated.
The tragedies of September 11, 2001 are the responsibility of a few. They are “responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.” They have blood on their hands.
The tragedies that have unfolded in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001 are our responsibility. We, too are “responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.” We have blood on our hands.
And we are reminded on CNN and MSNBC, etc., that it isn’t over.
Somehow I don’t feel like celebrating. Do you?
Paul,
I hadn’t heard the news until this morning as I was leaving a hotel in Tucson where I had been vacationing. The woman tending the breakfast bar asked me if I had heard the good news yet – I said that I hadn’t. She was ecstatic as she told me that bin Laden was dead, and showed me a headline newspaper. It was about 5am, and I wasn’t awake enough to articulate all that was racing through my mind as she tried to goad me into joining her in jubilation. Instead, I flatly told her that I just simply don’t choose to celebrate anyone’s death, and that I would have rather that we had simply captured the man rather than killing him. She seemed disappointed, but stopped gloating. Perhaps if only even a very small handful of us simply point out to those who are celebrating death what it is they are doing, maybe we will be able to deescalate the rhetoric of violence begetting more violence… and maybe, just maybe, we really can achieve world peace, one person at a time.
Well written & well said, my friend…
David
David- Thanks for your story. Your relationship with that woman, however brief, is not without consequence. That is the hand of grace at work, and its greater function, as well as its diviner urging may well be beyond us, but I think we can trust anyway.
Paul, thank you for such an articulate, factual, and intelligent post, effectively weaving in scripture to defend your point. The truth is, there is a huge mix of emotions–like the woman tending the breakfast bar that David eluded to, there is much jubilation in our country. At the same time, the rest of the world is watching–watching our kids cheer. Bin Laden has become a symbol–his death means that the man mostly responsible for 9/11 is dead. But his death doesn’t bring any of those victims back. The world is taking notice of our “U-S-A” chants and instead of making us look like heroes around the world, it continues to fuel the anti-American sentiment of being the big bully in the world’s playground. I too yearn for peace, but as I see the FB posts being 50-50 (half celebrating and half reflective and calling for peace), I realize that Paul’s noting that “this isn’t over” isn’t just a warning, it’s a reality–we as a nation aren’t ready for it to be over, instead of yearning for this death to bring peace, is this even a possibility in our current political, economical and global climate? Thanks for putting this out there so quickly, I’m curious how my conversations with my congregation members will go this week–this will be a good litmus test for sure.
John- I am excited to learn how the congregational conversation unfolds. I hope you’ll take a minute to share. I am sure that there will be an evolving consciousness about this event. I see my own mind even shifting. for instance, I had been blind to all of the ‘successes’ issuing forth for Al Quaeda in the wake of 9/11, as is evident by my failure to mention that the United States became state sponsor of torture as a result of bin Laden’s attack; and I did not mention the suspension of civil liberties we have implemented in the Patriot Act, and in our flying habits.
The word that really hit me during a group conversation this morning of about 12 was “subdued”. While most people’s initial reaction was quite favorable at first, the heading out to the streets and chanting U-S-A wasn’t one of the extremes. Most people agreed that the response to a death shouldn’t be of jubilation, but had led to dialogue with spouses about the ethics behind it. Almost everyone thought that he should’ve been killed–taking him alive didn’t seem like an option. One mentioned the struggles a pacifist was having with the decision–the relief at knowing he was no longer able to kill others, but the remorse at knowing it was a death that had to happen.
I think the subdued ambivalence is reason to hope. If we can also be at least ambivalent about our own complicity in evil structures, I think there is hope to come to difficult conclusions that lead us to change for the better in the future.
Paul – Thank you for this post. I often thought that on 9/11 the US was like a husband or brother whose wife or sister had been raped. He wants revenge. He keeps forgetting that his rage is not the main event. Her experience gets erased in his fury. (See Faludi’s writing on the Post-9/11 world for how this isn’t a perfect parallel.)
I said many times that I didn’t as a traumatized person want to live in a vicariously traumatized country. My first reaction to the news was a sense of elation. What I was celebrating was the hope that we could close this trauma up and return to different scenic ground.
I still do not want to live in a traumatized country. But the reality is that I do whether I like it or not. And as symbolically powerful as the killing of Osama bin Laden may be, I still live in a traumatized country.
And Paul – for all the claims that we live in a Christian country you are correct that the just response is Luke’s.
Alison.. Your observation is so astute. When the vicariously traumatized victim is in the business of perpetuating trauma– where does that get us?
Hi Paul,
Thanks for posting this. You say even more pointedly what I’ve been trying to articulate since Sunday. I especially appreciate the tie in to what this war is costing the poor, the sick, the elderly, and the disenfranchised in our country. Practically speaking, if we had the money we’ve spent pursuing these wars for nine years in our national piggy bank, we wouldn’t now be talking about cutting Medicare, Social Security, WIC, and Planned Parenthood, to name a few. Some people would be trying, of course, because some people always do, but they wouldn’t have the backing of a huge fiscal hole on their side.
And as far as jubilation goes, as one person put it on FB (I don’t remember who, or I’d cite it), there is only one death we, as Christians, should be celebrating, and that in the context of the Resurrection. I’m trying to hold on to that.
Peace my friend,
J
Ezra Klein has a great article about the financial success of bin Laden, that you may want to check out.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/osama-bin-laden-didnt-win-but-he-was-enormously-successful/2011/05/02/AFexZjbF_story.html
Nice suggestion–bin Laden certainly must have felt happy with how much money the US has poured into defense, and Ezra Klein does a great job of detailing just how much has been sucked out of our pockets because of the actions that bin Laden put into motion.
Thanks, Paul. Very interesting article! And one that makes me very sad.