Wow.
Of all the articles and posts I've read on the OBL kill, Chomsky's has been the MOST powerful.
No one but Chomsky could get away with saying these keepers:
"There is much talk of bin Laden’s “confession,” but that is rather like my confession that I won the Boston Marathon. He boasted of what he regarded as a great achievement."
"In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress “suspects.” In April 2002, the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, informed the press that after the most intensive investigation in history, the FBI could say no more than that it “believed” that the plot was hatched in Afghanistan, though implemented in the UAE and Germany."
"We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden’s, and he is not a “suspect” but uncontroversially the “decider” who gave the orders to commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region."
And finally, this golden quote really won it for me:
"Same with the name, Operation Geronimo. The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying bin Laden by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.”"
WAW
4 days ago
11 comments:
Salaam,
I also liked the Noam Chomsky article. With that said I don't see the point of celebrating OBL's death. Aside from the fact that as Muslims we should never celebrate anybody's death, instead reflecting upon the temporary nature of life and about our own lives, what's the use of celebrating his death if it doesn't signal the end of the war? And when I mean end I mean complete withdrawal of occupiers from Iraq and Afghanistan with no "enduring bases", Special forces, contractors and CIA left behind. If that were to happen then I would celebrate, not so much OBL's death as the end of the nefarious War on Terror.
whats to celebrate when we don't even know who the man is in those's video's and images is and if he indeed is responsible for all those atrocities..what evidence do we have? the word of the US of A? Hardly a trustworthy source. To me this whole OBL event appears to be a method by which the west can get to Pakistan. Only time will tell.
You're right Anonymous I also suspect OBL's death is way to actually expand the War on Terror into Pakistan instead of end it (which would have been the wise thing to do). This is getting even more dangerous because now imagine them conducting drone attacks in and around Islamabad and continually breaching Pakistan's sovereignty again and again (SEAL striks, choppers blasting civilians at the border, etc). I pray the Pakistanis (and here I mean the general population not the corrupt criminal rulers and military generals) finally protest emphatically against the government (like in the ME now) and call for an threaten to bring it down if they continue this destructive relationship with the USA. I also pray the Ummah as a whole returns to calling for the implementation of Islam in life instead of corrupt man-made systems in their countries.
more than anything it shows pak military must improve it's skills, 2 helicopters landed inside the country, and spent 45min blowing up various thingsand people and then took off and all this in a mailitary town.....take the whole bunch of losers back to training 101...
If i were in pakistan i'd live in great fear that i would be unprotected in case of an attack...
imagine a whole country going to war with pakistan. they'd probably get in take , all military installations out and leave before the guys even woke up !!!! geez incompetant is too meek a word to use here.
take the $$ that usa is throwing your way adn train your people better pakistan armed forces..please...or else atleast use that $$$ to feed the poor.
Look at the treachery of these criminal rulers:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/09/osama-bin-laden-us-pakistan-deal
They restrained the nation's forces by giving a secret go-ahead to American raid last week and now pretend they're outraged. At this point I don't think their rule should just be threatened by the masses. They should kicked out of power and along with an extradited Musharraf stand trial for treason. And Pakistan and other Muslim countries should change their entire rule to coincide with Islam.
AA-
@R, yeah, I too wonder why Pakistanis haven't taken a page out of the Egyptian/Tunisian/etc. playbook?
@Anon2, while I have no love for the Pakistani army (who are a strong part of the elite group that is running the country into the ground), I tend to believe that the US forces entered with the their permission. But due to domestic concerns, they have let the US forces play the role of big, bad 'Amrika' stomping into poor little Pakistan.
"I tend to believe that the US forces entered with the their permission." --
even worse than i thought.. not only is the armed forces incompetant they are cowards too.. ughhh why can't they stand up nd fight for what's good and right. what a waste of a beautiful land.
Why the heck do they bleed the country adn youngsters dry.. no wonder people want to leave pakistan in drives, anyone with a lick of sense and ambition is fleeing. 4 of my friends have left the past week , educated people who can make a diff and who tried to be thwarted by idiots. maybe the US army should go in and rid the country of it's elitist army.
I am all for sharia law but I have some questions which are quite relevant,your thoughts would be enlightening Brother Naeem.
1. What will be the form of the Government and how will the "rulers" be elected/selected in the real world of today.
2. How the economy will be developed and managed ( government sector and private sector, consisting of industries employing possibly tens of thousands of people)
3. What will be the nature of Education and how it will delivered.
Any good Muslim should celebrate the death of UBL greater than the American occupier. His organization is responsible for the murders of more good Muslims than those infidels lost in the towers 40 times over. Noam Chomsky knows not of what he speaks.
AA-
@Anon, Excellent questions!! However, I've said it before that I'm not even remotely qualified to answer those questions. Thankfully, we have more than enough astute scholars and knowledgeable leaders who can come up with a solution.
The problem is that they haven't. For too long, going back to the Umayyad times, our scholars have taken a back seat wrt to all things political - choosing to focus on preserving the institutes of 'ilm.
And as long as there remained a tolerable political infrastructure based on the Shariah, they were wise to remain aloof from the dubious world of political machinations. However, that has all changed since the last century. And sadly, our scholars haven't adapted with the times.
I do, however, realize that the answers to your questions are not simple nor are they black/white. Anyone who suggests otherwise is a simpleton and is ignorant of the countless layers of complexity involved in politics and economics.
Just like the current world-dominating systems of democracy and capitalism have evolved through centuries of trial and error, an Islamic solution would also require similar struggles.
Our job, as laymen, isn't to come up with solutions, but to educate our circles of influence on the need for expanding our concept of what our deen entails (ie. not just the personal rituals).
@last anon
Here's a link to a site answering some of your questions re: politics and economics in Islam.
http://islamicsystem.blogspot.com/p/economics.html
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