NORTH CAROLINA--(BASN)
by Eric D.Graham
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant, and time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silent, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.' Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
While the world celebrated Prince Charles and Kate Middleton's fairy tale wedding at Westminster Abbey, politicians laughed at the recent White House Correspondent dinner.
While Columbia, SC danced to the songs and tunes of Grammy-award winning R&B singer Usher during his OMG Tour, the future faces of the NFL embraced Commissioner Roger Goodell during the 2011 NFL Draft as the lockout continued to linger in the air.
While the nation mourned the deaths of people, who lost their lives due to tornadoes that blew across the South and Donald Trump questioned the U.S. citizenship of President Obama, the government of the United States of America secretly plotted and planned the death of Osama bin Laden.
And then it happened.
The newspaper headlines read, "The Head of the Snake Has Finally Been Cut-off.'"
Ironically, the President's announcement, which stated that the accused master-mind behind 9/11 had been killed, occurred during "Celebrity Apprentice, right before Trump was about to fire someone in the boardroom.
Unjustified Justice
"On nights like this one, we can say to those families, who lost loved ones due to Al Qaeda's terror, justice has been done." proclaimed President Obama.
Tariq Ali, author of The Obama Syndrome and Clash of Fundamentalism, however, disagreed with the President's usage of the word "justice," especially when addressing the recent assassination of Osama bin Laden.
"One word not to describe this (the killing of bin Laden) is justice" Ali told reporter Lauryn Flanders of Grit TV.
"This is the justice of vigilantes. This is lynch mob justice. Had the United States seriously been concerned with justice, they would have taken him alive.....put him on trial...and let the world know he was guilty. This is the way justice is normally carried about" Ali explained.
"Justice is not carried about by behaving like terrorists. And if the aim of the operation was to show us state terror is more powerful than individual terrorist.....we already knew that."
Despite Ali's critique, after the President's speech, the world went on a tweeter frenzy!!
Truth by deception
"May Day! May Day! Osama bin Laden is dead. He was shot in the head by special ops forces.
And then given a proper Muslim burial where his body was cleansed and wrapped in white linen and buried in the Arabian Sea.
After hearing this story, I recalled a quote by American journalist Walter Lippmann, who said, "The news and the truth are not the same thing."
Lipperman's quote, expressed my feelings exactly.
But whether I believed the entire military version of Bin Laden's assassination was irrelevant.
Because according to radio talk show host Michael Rivero,"History is a joke played by the victors …in front of an audience that dares not to laugh."
This was especially true after hearing that bin Laden, who many considered to be a CIA operative, was allegedly found living in what reporters called a mansion in a Pakistani suburbs near a military base.
While many questioned America's shoot and kill operation, the violent details of bin Laden's assassination and the DNA analysis, former Director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center, Cofer Black, revealed America's true mentality in Jeremy Schaill's book Blackwater:The Rise of the World 's Most Powerful Mercenary Army when he was quoted as saying:
" I don't want bin Laden and his thugs captured, I want them dead....They must be killed. I want to see photos of their heads on pikes." he told covert CIA operatives Gary Schroen. “I want bin Laden's head shipped back in a box filled with dry ice. I want to be able to show bin Laden's head to the President.... Take a machete, and whack off his head, and you'll get a bucketful of DNA, so you can see it and test it. It beats lugging the whole body back!"
Yes, this was the inflammatory language used by the US government after 9/11, and the gruesome "reality" Osama bin Laden faced last Sunday on the day of his potential demise.
Ritualistic and Conspiratorial View
Let's not forget, however, that this clandestine operation occurred one day after NATO dropped bombs on Muhammar Gadhafi's son Saif al Arab's home, which reportedly killed him and three of Gadhafi's grandsons.
And almost ritualistically, bin Laden’s death was announced on May1st, which was the exact date that Adolph Hitler's death was announced 66 years ago. Strangely, in both cases, however, neither of their bodies were found.
With no body of evidence, I find it interesting that people believe bin Laden is dead, but still think that President Obama is not a U.S. citizen. In other words, where's the proof?
"It was him..." confirmed President Obama during the upcoming interview on 60 minutes.
"There is no doubt that we killed Osama bin Laden.
Even though, government officials are debating whether to release photos of bin Laden's bloody corpse, many people feel this is the only way to stop conspiracy theories from spreading over the internet. Others, however, use the logic that if the US could show the body of President Kennedy after he was assassinated then why not bin Laden’s?
Despite these different viewpoints, Americans, however, must remember how past photos of US soldiers grinning over the dead bodies of Afghani civilians, prisoners being tortured at Abu Ghraib, as well as the recent burning of The Holy Quran by Florida pastor Terry Porter worsen tensions between the US and other Islamic nations.
"It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody shot in the head are not floating around....as a propaganda tool." the President pointed out.
Code Name Controversy
As Americans continue to debate the president's decision to publish pictures of bin Laden’s body, many Native American tribes and organization were infuriated by the Navy Seal's code word used to identify him and shouted before his eventual assassination.
Shockingly, bin Laden code name was Germiono. (This is another reason, I think bin Laden's assassination was a ritualistic or symbolic killing.)
Loretta Tuell, staff and chief counsel for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said it is inappropriate to link Geronimo, whom she called "one of the greatest Native American heroes" with one of the most hated enemies of the United States, according to the Associated Press.
"These inappropriate uses of Native American icons and cultures are prevalent throughout our society and the impact to Native and non-Native children are devastating" said Tuell, a member of the Nez Perce tribe, who grew up on the tribe's reservation in Idaho.
Despite the Native American's outrage over the code name controversy, truefully, they shouldn't be surprised. Let's not forget, the US Military Apache and Blackhawk helicopters used to slaughter people in Somalia as well as in Iraqi.
Besides, all of our beloved freedom fighters past, present or future will always be considered terrorists in the mind of the US government.
Whether it is Germiono, Sitting Bull, Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Gabriel Prosser, Leonard Peltier, Shaka Zulu, The Black Panther Party, Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Malcolm X, or even that little Palestinian child throwing rocks at an Israeli tank.
In other words, despite all of its advanced military technology, historically, the US schizophrenic foreign policy has always been based on a cowboy versus Indian philosophy, where the cowboys are perceived as the good guys and the Native Americans or people of color are considered savages, who need to be civilized, baptized, and eventually killed.
Whether those people are the Vietnamese, Japanese, Mexicans, Native Americans, Africans, Palestinians or Iraqis.
And like the early cowboy versus Indian movies produced by Hollywood, nine out of ten times, the people watching them always cheered the slaughter of the Indians, even in the movie "Avatar."
Celebration and Adulation
Therefore, I wasn't surprised when I saw Americans celebrating in the streets after hearing the news of bin Laden's death, as if it was a Final Four or Super Bowl victory.
For example, there were cheers and chants of "USA, USA, USA" from US citizens outside the White House, on the college campuses, and during the Philadelphia Phillies versus the New York Mets baseball game.
This sign of approval for the death of bin Laden, in fact, proved former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's theory that "we (US) need a common enemy to unite us."
This display of unity for bin Laden's assassination was seen and heard even in the voice of Chicago Blackhawks Jim Cornelison when he belted out the National Anthem until his face 
was "bloody" red with passion before the Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls Eastern Conference Semi-Finals playoff game Monday night at the United Center in Chicago as the fans cheered enthusiastically.
America's jubilation and enthusiasm for its military power and presence overseas, however, is a part of its patriotic upbringing and history.
Pride and Patriotism
According to Feminist Emma Goldman, "we Americans claim to be a peace loving people. We hate bloodshed; we are opposed to violence. Yet we go into spasms of joy over possibility of projecting dynamite bombs from flying machines upon helpless citizens."
Goldman goes on to say that "Conceit, arrogance, and egotism are essentials of patriotism. ...and the powers (government) know that the people are like children whose despair, sorrow, and tears can be turned into joy with a little toy.
And unfortunately, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marines represent the people's toys in the form of bombs, tanks, planes, AK-47's, and M-16's.
Despite this military milestone against "terror", which was considered a "Great Day for America", there are several important questions that must be answered and pondered?
Questions to ponder
Does the killing of bin Laden provide a sense of relief, sense of satisfaction, and closure for the people affected by 9/11? Does this latest military action guarantee the election of President Obama in 2012 and validate his presidency amongst the Tea Party, and the Republican Party?
Is Pakistan, now, considered an enemy to the United States, even though they possess nuclear weapons? And does the death of bin Laden make us a safer nation?
Because philosophically, every action; requires an equal and opposite reaction.
Violence begets Violence
In other words, militarily, violence begets more violence. As a result, the reported death of bin Laden, could, in fact, cause more terrorist attacks in America and unrest in the "so-called Middle East" amongst his loyal followers and supporters, who seek to revenge his death, even though most Muslims despised him and his worldwide acts of violence as well as his Islamic ideology.
"When will people step back and look at the calculus of things." said investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill on the news program Democracy Now!
"Are we creating new enemies by killing a handful of people in these operations, where civilians are also killed?
Unfortunately, Scahill is correct in his assessment.
Hopefully, President Obama, in the midnight hour, will ponder the words in the Book of Ecclesiastes in Chapter 10 versus 18 which says:” Wisdom is better than weapons of war...as he deals with the uprising in Libya and the ousting Libyan leader Mohammar Gadfahi as well as other conflicts throughout the world.
BOBBEE BEE 12 VALUABLE VALUES 
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