Unless I am mistaken, I seem to recall that not long after the attacks of 9/11/01 the television networks took a stand perhaps at the request of the White House and declared that Osama bin-Laden’s time on American television would be ended. Now he’s back in the news and is being quoted and shown on news networks for all to see, and I don’t understand how we have come to such a pass that we would allow this man to have free air time on American television.
Of course he’s still news and what he does and all that he’s involved in still concerns many Americans. However, there is no justification for allowing this murderer time in the American media to pontificate about his perverted religion (whatever it is, it ain’t Islam!) and his even more perverted world views. Why should anyone in the United States give one whit about what this man has to say? Is being willing to hear this mass murderer’s thoughts what it means to be enlightened? If so, darkness now appears the better alternative because this man is not capable of rational discourse.
Unlike Democrats, I am willing to trust Homeland Security, the CIA, and the FBI to get to the heart of what this maniac is up to and to do what needs to be done to maintain reasonable national security since, as far as I can tell, they’ve done a pretty remarkable job since 9/11/01. Though I am a freedom-loving libertarian Republican, I also acknowledge that in matters of national security there are some things I don’t need to know because if I as a citizen who reads in public can have access to inside information, so can bin-Laden and his band of marauders. This alone is a compelling reason why citizens should be well informed about potential candidates for public office. We have to be able to trust them to make sound decisions.
It is not a matter of choosing to live in ignorance. As a student of politics and as an informed voter I am painfully aware of what is happening around me. As a somewhat reasonable man, I am equally aware that there is only so much I can do to protect myself against irrational “martyrs” who are willing to die in their crazed efforts to accomplish whatever mission they feel compelled to fulfill. I am not willing to receive a voice that claims to speak on behalf of such perverted minds, and I expect US media to respect that bin-Laden and his organization are still actively at war with the United States. How dare they think that this person has something to say to America worth listening to, let alone repeating over and over again?
While we continue to bury our beloved countrymen, we must be subjected to this criminal trying to convince us that we had it coming and then offering a veiled threat against us unless we repent? I think not.
2 comments:
Osama bin-Laden back on TV, his image in newspapers, his name on the lips of anchormen and politicians, is such a relief. I almost thought Americans had FORGOTTEN we still have to catch this man and bring down al-Quaida. The latter of which is just a pipe dream at this point.
But you're right--the media often misplaces its priorities. They should spend more time blasting Graeme Frost, less time discussing those torture memos, for example. The U.S. is TORTURING detainees? Whatever. Can you believe Britney lost custody of her kids?
If our government is taking away our freedoms, what is it for the sake of? What have we been fighting to protect? This "war against terror" has deformed this country into training its interrogators to employ the very same classic torture techniques that American soldiers in Vietnam were taught to resist. But you know, whatever keeps us safe, right? At least it's not me being tortured.
"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither." -Benjamin Franklin
As a veteran having been trained about survival, including survival as a POW, one of the points made to us - and stressed, I might add - is that whatever we visit on our enemies will sooner rather than later come back to haunt us.
I'm with you, Jen. Whenever we reduce our tactics to the low level of those we are fighting, it becomes impossible to distinguish one from the other. That our torture is striving for a more noble goal such as security is irrelevant. We cannot become those we oppose.
Post a Comment