I have to admit to feeling the slightest bit uncomfortable with all the hootin' and hollerin' in the last 24 hours (I said slight, which means minimal to all of you modern day McCartheyists waiting in the wings). Don't get me wrong -- I'm glad that it is over, and, to be honest, this is my first major despot elimination, so I have no real frame of reference. I can start to understand the idea of closure, although this event isn't bringing anyone back that's already been lost. And religious extremism has been interconnected with war and violence for ages (can't we ever peacefully proselytize to each other about our faiths?) -- and will be for ages to come.
And don't get it twisted anyone -- I am certainly all for the military personnel serving overseas, the ones in training to go wherever we end up for the next conflagration, the families left behind waiting for loved ones to return or dealing with those that don't ... but I also carry the weariness of Mother Courage (gratuitous Brecht reference) and view war like any other overgrown giant business industrial complex.
So Osama or UBL or Usama or whatever your watery gravestone should say (I don't want another Elvis Aaron Presley on our hands in 20 years), now you don't get the spotlight anymore -- and instead, can we say for the 3000 or so that died on 9/11 and the nearly 6000 of our own troops that paid the ultimate sacrifice in the Long War so far and another 1000 or so from the other terrorist attacks inspired by you or the countless civilian deaths connected to our actions and your insurgencies ... for all of those -- can we focus instead on all of their lives cut short and say that they will be the ones who are missed.
NUMBERS SOMETIMES DON'T MEAN AS MUCH AS THE FACES DO:
I HAVE A LOT OF DEBT FOR THIS GERMAN DEGREE, SO I HAVE TO USE IT HERE:
THE GRACELAND VERSION EXPLAINING AWAY THE MISSPELLED TOMBSTONE:
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