THE UNITED STATES OF AMNESIA (USA)

On September 11, 2001 America’s invincibility as super power was mercilessly deflated when a band of ragtag Muslim jihadists flew two powerful air planes into the twin towers of the famous World Trade Center in New York: America’s symbols of economic power, incinerating the magnificent structures with over 3000 occupants. It was a gory sight, as frightened workers at the Trade Center fell to their death, jumping from the 80^th floor or higher of the burning edifice. Americans soon forgot their political persuasions, and racial divide to rally round a grieving nation. The rallying cry then was to bring the perpetrators to justice. The manhunt for Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaida criminals began in earnest the moment the subterranean organization claimed responsibility for the attacks.  It was a gruesome and expensive campaign to bring Bin Laden to justice: two wars, growing debts and sluggish economy.

I am therefore, amazed at the hysteria coming from the conservative Republicans accusing the Obama administration of “killing an unarmed man.” Nothing could be more hypocritical. Why did the Bush administration take us to these wars, if all we wanted is to arraign the 911 attackers in court, and nothing more?  Right now, the Obama justice ministry cannot even prosecute KSM because the Republican Party argues and continues to insist that our judicial system cannot handle the security implication of trying the 911 criminal in an open court.  I concur with President Obama that whoever questions the killing of Bin Laden should have his head examined.  How else would an army go about the attack on OBL, knowing in all probability, he could be wearing a suicide vest if not to liquidate him before he does them in? You do not take chances with an individual who openly canvases dying a martyr, for he is already a dead man, and would stop at nothing to claim more innocent lives on his way to martyrdom. Personal notes and other materials confiscated from the Al-Qaida leader indicated that he was planning to attack our rail system with catastrophic consequences. My question therefore, is how many more Americans would this individual kill before we allow him to receive a dose of his own medicine. How many?

We all do seem to be under some degree of amnesia. We seem to have forgotten the bickering that rocked our polity when the Obama’s justice ministry decided it would try KSM in New York in an open court, and not a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay prison facility.  Conservative commentators could not contend themselves as they scampered for who could paint the most dire picture of the “dangerous” consequence of that decision.  Short of casting aspersion on the country’s ability to protect the people of New York, the impression was that Al-Qaida operatives would try to reenact the 911 attacks.  The same Republican Party who described trying KSM in an open court as naïve and insensitive, now wanted Bin Laden captured alive to face justice. The truth of the matter is that the killing of Bin Laden in the hands of a Democratic president, and not a Republican has severely diminished from that party’s refrain as the stronger on national security, and that sudden reversal of role has rubbed the party on the wrong side.

The hypocrisy and lies of conservatives have reached a new low, and the corporate media appear complacent, as they are not being called out. At the height of his presidential charade, Donald Trump bragged about his personal investigators related to the true birthplace of the President.. “You cannot believe what they have found.”  The media went after Trump, giving him the entire vehicle to spew his diatribe against the President day in day out as if the country’s financial and economic morass would disappear the day the President discloses his true birth place. If it is news worth for Trump to unleash a team of investigators to chase after the birth certificate of the President of the United States, it is incumbent on a responsible media to investigate the investigators to, at least let Americans have an idea of the caliber of people running for the highest office in the world.  Mike Huckabee knew the lies he told about the President would hurt his presidential bid, hence his decision not to run. Everybody knows Huckabee is letting himself open for 2016, counting on us to forget.

Newt Gingritch is the African proverbial antelope who danced itself lame before the real competition; the woodpecker who bragged about falling a mighty tree with his bare peak upon the death of his aged mother. His mom eventually died and a huge tumor on his peak scuttled his pride.     He is a buddle of hypocritical energy; an individual who speaks from both sides of his mouth and recant them just as quickly. Before the Trump tragedy, Newt was the fire-eater who made a career of senselessly antagonizing President Obama. Nothing he would not say about the President just to appease the ultra-right (the Tea Party) and curry their favor.  Newt accused Obama of harboring a Kenyan anti-colonial mentality, as if that was not what proudly propelled America’s war with the British. Today, no other country is more qualified to be part of the commonwealth nations than the United States. This is an example of a deep-rooted anti-colonial mentality.  The disgraced former speaker has just warned the Democratic Party against using his own words against him come 2012; his words about Congressman Ryan’s budget as being antithetical to the American dream.  Newt could afford to sound a senseless warning like this one because experience has taught him that in one year Americans would vouch on his behalf that he never uttered those words, and with a conniving media, whoever used those words becomes the villain.

BIN LADEN’S KILLING …END OF GOP’S FEAR MONGERING

For too long, the GOP has falsely positioned itself as tough in national security, high in patriotism, and lately, the real Americans. The Democratic Party on the other hand, grapples daily, with little success the stigma of weak in national security; not really committed to the “American values.” Unfortunately, this is independent of clear evidences to the contrary. For too long, the GOP has ran and won elections not on their vision for the country, but by merely raising the terror alert at the appropriate time, and heavily terrified Americans scurry for cover. Ironically, The GOP has done more to strategically endanger the national security of our country than the Democratic Party. For instance, the war against Saddam Hussein was a war of choice by the Bush Administration to deplete resources from the effort to hunt down Osama bin Laden. It is on record that President Bush declined request by Army commanders for additional marines to help seal off the exit route of Bin Laden at the height of military campaign to apprehend of annihilate the 9/11 culprit-in-chief. The Iraqi war could pass for an extension of the war on terror, but do not tell me it has anything to do with the hunt for the Al-Qaida leader.


In 2005, President Bush dissolved a special squad dedicated for the capture and or killing of Osama bin Laden by former President Bill Clinton in 1995. It was also on record that Bush at the twilight of his administration alluded to what we all have known a long time ago, that he never taken the hunt for Bin Laden any seriously. “The man is on the run, I do not know where the man is hiding. To be frank with you I do not lose sleep about him, I’m not worried about this man,” Bush said dismissively. The war against Saddam has not made us any safer, rather it has made us more vulnerable, impoverished, and ridiculed internationally. With Saddam under the influence of the United States, Iran was sufficiently weakened. Today, Iran is a regional “super power,” and a potential nuclear contender. Prior to the Iraqi invasion, the government under Saddam was a secular one. With the death of Saddam via hanging, America has thus, created a full-fledged Islamic country, the likes of Iran and Syria, thereby inadvertently watering the fountain of suicide bombing.

As a senator, Mr. Barrack Obama described the Iraqi war as senseless and dumb. As a presidential candidate, Obama vowed to end the Iraqi campaign, reinvigorate the Afghan war and refocus our efforts at hunting down OBL. Candidate Obama was ridiculed and dismissed as naïve, when in one of the presidential debates, he suggested that he would not hesitate to move into Pakistan to capture or kill OBL following any actionable intelligence. Most of the criticisms coming from the GOP make no sense at all. They make fun of the fact that he is professorial. They caricature the fact that he was humble enough to operate as a community organizer, living and working amongst the downtrodden of society, while his contemporaries chose the Wall Street. They reduced the President of the greatest country in the world to an undocumented alien who has to show some papers to qualify for employment. The GOP accused him of not following the security policies of former President George Bush in tracking down Bin Laden. With his death in the hands of President Obama and company, the GOP now claims George Bush’s policies made that possible. The truth of the matter is that there were no such policies from 2006.

You would think that a party that prides itself as security hawks would embrace the death of the individual who orchestrated the worst attack against America on American soil, and congratulate the President, the intelligence community and the military. That would not be. For the GOP, everything is politics. The assertions coming from the ranks of GOP members regarding the killing of OBL are troubling. Just as they are against anything the President is for, they appear to be sympathetic to Bin Laden, and against the President and the men and women of the military. They accused the military brass who pulled off this heroic fit of killing an unarmed man. It is a shame that any American irrespective of political persuasion could describe Bin Laden as “unarmed.” The conservatives who have consistently bashed Muslims and Islam are now sudden defenders of Islamic religion and jurisprudence, describing the burial at sea of OBL as against Islamic tenets. Because the President is disinclined to release the graphic photos of the killing citing security reasons, the GOP is clamoring for the photos not because they seriously doubt Bin Laden’s death, but for two reasons. (1) The photos if released now would upset Muslim sensibilities, with catastrophic effect on America and its interests, and (2) If released now, it would not have the same punch when used as election tool come November 2012.

It is mind boggling that for eight years, while President Bush told Americans that OBL might be hiding in a cave somewhere on the mountains along Pakistani/Afghan borders, OBL was comfortably wallowing in opulence in a million dollar mansion with wives and children. One would think that Bin Laden would be armed to the teeth in view of his notoriety as world’s most wanted terrorist. However, he was not, and the question for me is what was he thinking? He must have been under the impression that America has forgotten about him. Was the de-emphasis put on his hunt by the Bush administration, any indication of his seemingly relaxed, and comfortable living in a city close to an army installation? From reports, OBL moved into his mansion in 2006, just one year after George Bush dismounted the Bin Laden squad. Is there any connection? In killing Bin Laden, President Hussein Obama kept a campaign promise, and I just hope that his critics would look beyond his color, and only then, will they see and appreciate the gift he is for America. I must be frank with you and say just as quickly that the frantic attempt, which we are seeing now by the GOP, scratching for credit in the death of OBL is their last hope at ascribing a semblance of achievement to a completely failed administration. Bin Laden’s death has demystified the myth that the GOP is better in national security, and therefore, has totally annihilated the Party’s only political plank. With Bin Laden gone, the bogeyman is out of the picture, and there goes the fear of the unknown known.