Sleep Tight Children, The Bogey Man is No More. For Now

So they killed Bin Laden.  Big deal.  Truth is, most people have figured the man to be dead for years.  Or no longer a threat of any kind.  This doesn't include those that never really thought the man was dangerous to begin with.

Let's assume, for the sake of this entry, that he was killed some time in the last week or two.  Do we really need the media coverage to play this up like we just took Hitler out?  I don't know what the news looks like anywhere but here in NYC and, to be honest, it's been disgusting.


Most of the locals in NYC have managed to move forward since 9/11.  We might not forget the day or the the days after.  Sure, it's doubtful we will ever experience a single day in this city where the sight, or sound, of a plane doesn't turn our heads upward, a slight chill racing down our spine, as we wonder "is it happening again?"

As we move towards a full decade beyond that event, we are, suddenly, being bombarded with reminders of the tragic losses, the horror stories of the missing, never to be found.  We are, again, reminded that the quiet guy with the backpack might, in fact, be a terrorist.

Do we need to dredge up that fear?  Do we need to start looking, shifty eyed and worried, at every middle eastern looking person?

This city was finally erasing that horrible aspect of things.  We were starting to forget the media barrage that told us that any muslim could be primed and ready to blow themselves up and, yet, here's the media, at 1 am, dragging the vicitims' loved ones on to the set, retelling stories of loss and tragedy.

The media outlets are interspersing these interviews with clips of cheering crowds and replaying the President's announcement.

What does this serve?

If anything, it will create a bigger divide.  It's like tearing off the scab that's finally starting to heal, and jabbing that wound anew.

The fundamentalist muslims see our president, soberly announcing that Bin Laden is dead and he ends his little speach with how we stand, one nation, under god.....

Yeah, that's good.  Tell these folks their hero, their leader, is dead and, oh, by the way, god is backing us.

Good one.  Might as well have stood up there and said "God 1, Mohammed 0"

And what of the crowds of people outside the White House, partying in Times Square and Ground Zero?

Am I the only one who noticed that they were all under 25?  It was a fucking party for them.  They'd have been there if it was announced that Bugs Bunny was retiring.  It was a reason to drink, shout and act like assholes.

Another great message sent to the world.

Well done USA!

Instead of cheering the death of this guy, we should be talking about new ways to heal, new ways to move forward, new ways to avoid more of these types of attacks.

And we should be hearing about the new bogey man because the old one was no longer useful.  Keyser Soze had become irrelevant.  Time for a new one.

My guess is, some time in the next few weeks, we'll start to hear about the new head of Al Qaeda.  Reports will come out about the various folks who might fill the void and take over for the evil Bin Laden.

Then we'll hear about potential attacks, plots foiled, targets saved.

Then we'll get hit with another attack.

On or around September 11, 2011.  The tenth anniversary.  Very fitting.  With OBL still out there, the public would have called for the President's head on a platter.  The public would have blamed Bush but they'd have been more upset that the man who said he'd get out of the fight, only to step up the battle, should have succeeding in ridding the world of this evil.

So, by doing this, when the next attack comes, and we all know that it's inevitable and unavoidable, our Commander in Chief can stand in that same spot and say "we got Bin Laden but we never thought that the end of terrorist attacks would follow and a new beast has risen to the top of Al Qaeda and this man is responsible for..."

And Obama's ratings will not be hurt and the world will rally around the man who had no chance for a second term and he might, now, actually get reelected.