Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it. . .
At last, at last, the Devil himself is dead. Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, author, instigator and organizer of the murder of almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens, was run to earth this week by US special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and promptly sent to Hell. May his soul rot and burn there forever, and may the stench of his foul earthly remains not choke the fishes.
Predictably, the carping has started. The SEALs were wrong to enter Pakistan, they shot an unarmed man, they should have brought him back for trial, etc., etc. Let the unctuous whine to their hearts content, Bin Laden is stone-cold dead, thanks be to God.
“We love death. The US loves life. That is the big difference between us,” Al Qaeda's leader proclaimed. I wonder just when it was that he discovered his error? Bin Laden achieved consummation with what he claimed to love, on an upper floor of his refuge, in the forty-minute raid’s last ten minutes. While the great Emir, the Lion, the Sheikh al-Mujahid cowered with his wife and daughter in the dark, listening to the SEALs finishing off his guards and coming closer, how much did he love death then?
When it was time to pay the piper, and death, finally, arrived at his door, the great Islamic Holy Warrior was nowhere to be found. Bin Laden had an assault rifle and pistol within reach, but the new Saladin left his last battle to others -- his son shot on the stairway below, his 24 year old wife shot in the leg defending him. Bin Laden at the last died banking on the mercy he denied to the children and babies his minions killed flying them into buildings.
Did Bin Laden really think he would be taken alive, so that he could preen before the cameras, to hide behind the law and mock us; miraculously gifted with a second life to make public sport of the dead? Like all villains, the jackal Bin Laden counted on the law, but he was blinded to the existence of another Law, and is left to beg forgiveness at another place.
7 comments:
I'm not sure we'll ever know exactly why the pistol and the AK-47, "in arm's reach" according to the NYT, were not in OBL's hands when the SEALs came in. It's possible he expected to be taken alive, but there may have been something else going on...though I'm not sure what. Maybe it all happened too quickly, though you'd think he would have heard some commotion on the stairs...
Btw I heard something on the radio about Abbotabad, perhaps you heard this also -- it's named for a 19th cent. British officer who wrote a very bad poem about the town. (On PRI's 'The World')
Off topic, but I notice I'm surrounded on your blogroll by the likes of Elliott Abrams, Michelle Malkin, The Daily Telegraph, and Donald Douglas (American Power). I mean, I knew this, but I haven't been by here for a while so I was just struck anew by my 'encirclement'. I feel outnumbered. [But then there are few conservatives or neo-cons on my blogroll so I guess I can't complain too much.]
The raiders were on the ground 40 mins max, and from what I read today, subsequent to my post, they had time to spare (the amount of material hauled off seems rather to confirm that).
That said, OBL had to have had at least a few minutes, particularly since the copter that went down contained the force that was supposed to go on his roof. I cannot imagine why he would not go for his guns -- surely he cannot have expected to be taken alive, but I can't come up with any other reasonable explanation for his failure to do so.
Seems like Major Abbott was a big wheel in the First Sikh War of the 1840's, think I'd read about him in Farwell's Queen Victoria's Little Wars.
I sort of understand about feeling encircled...I've run in mostly left groups of people my whole life.
Speaking of side bars. This will work better than what blogger felt fit give for my blog.
http://eclecticmeanderings.blogspot.com/
http://eclecticmeanderings.blogspot.com/
This is better
Hank,
For some weird reason, when I load your blog URL into the Blogger blogroll gadget, it seems to load and save okay, but when I try to load it, I get this page for Google Feedburner.
Not sure what the deal is, but will keep working on it.
Jefe.
El Jeffe
I wondered if I had done any thing wrong so looked in my blog settings. Google must have "improved" it several times since the last time I looked. I turned off the feed burner function so maybe it will work.
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