ATHENEUM

President Obama announces the news of Bin Laden's death

“To win that war, we need a commander-in-chief, not a law professor standing at a lectern.” Sarah Palin, 2008

The bully who promised to “smoke him out of his cave” and his pack of thugs (Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld) failed to deliver. A Constitutional law professor accomplished the mission. Three years into his presidency, Barack Obama’s CIA and Department of Defense did away with the mastermind behind the September 11th attacks on America.

Looking at this event, one cannot but notice the restraint of the US President, his terse prose, his gratitude to the servicemen and women who executed the operation. The flow of his sentences had the elegance of sound reasoning. His ideas were clear: “We did not choose this war; war came to our shore.” He added: “Our war is not with Islam.” There was an underlying theme in Obama’s speech: a nation committed to ideals will pursue them no matter the time or effort. He spoke with a sense of conviction and beckoned the nation to unity in time of crisis. A soft-spoken man offered closure where bravado failed. A sad chapter of our history started with hatred by others but was ended by the United States with the universal language of justice.

The rhetoric of Al Qaeda is overblown. Hateful tirades contradict the very essence of the Quran. Theirs is the appeal to nationalism, ethnocentrism and a limited sectarian view of Islam. The President’s speech was not about revenge but about the XVIII century Enlightenment principles that guided the Founding Fathers. Far from an exercise in might, the mission was not a First World nation using its military and financial prowess to do away with the enemy. Bin Laden was, after all, part of the privileged Arab ruling elite. The President articulated what happened today as the discharge of a moral obligation to innocent victims and the nation.

For tonight, the world looks beyond religion. What transpired tonight is a duty of justice: it is the fulfillment of a law, not a matter of personal ethics. Tonight we rejoice not in vengeance but in justice accomplished.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 
•