Ding Dong Jingoism

The news was breaking in prime time and I just wanted to go to bed. At first, one couldn't tell whether this was merely some rumor or whether there was something really afoot. Social media were lighting up: Tweets, Facebook, emails, the gamut. Then, all of the mainstream news media started reporting it, something big had gone down and President Obama would be giving a speech to the nation and the world. Osama Bin Laden was dead, killed in a special-op, probably by Navy SEALs. This was real, the actual SEALs, not some Charlie Sheen movie characters, not Donald Trump's next fantasy mission, not American Idol, but rather the anti-American idol was off the air for good, cancelled.

I was safe, at least to go to bed. But before I did there was already coverage of people cheering outside the White House, some wrapped in the American flag, with American flag clothing, including wild Uncle Sam hats. Even at televised major league baseball games, the crowds were chanting, “U-S-A” repeatedly. It was us against them, the west against Islam, payback at last for all those who were killed on 9/11. It had begun; ding dong he was dead and jingoism was unleashed.

Jingoism, by definition it is “extreme patriotism, especially in the form of aggressive or warlike foreign policy.” In practice, it is what got us into the trap that Bin Laden allegedly set on September 11, 2001. Yes, a big bear trap. We've been gnawing our leg off ever since, with tremendous cost in blood, ours and others', (6000-plus dead US military personnel, perhaps 100,000 wounded, 100,000 Iraqis estimated killed) and treasure, more than a trillion tax dollars and rapidly counting.

Posts such as “Mission really accomplished” and “now it is our chance to cheer on the streets like the Muslims did after 9/11,” filled the internet the next morning. The word “closure” was popping up, as if this was the end of something big in the world. It isn't.

For the past months and perhaps more, according to reports, Bin Laden has been in that house without access to phones or the internet, relying on couriers to relay information, just up the street from the West Point of Pakistan. What he might be controlling from there is unknown, but it is pretty clear that his command and control, if he ever had it, was not in effect recently. Reports also indicate that we have known he was at that house since at least February and perhaps since last summer. These commandoes have been training on a mock up of the compound for weeks.

So what is accomplished? What is closed? The death of one man, the face of worldwide anti-western terrorism, at least. Does this mean that we can now let our guard down? Can we pull our forces out of the region? Of course not. Not yet. The threat is still very real, but we might have an opening here.

We should celebrate this one battle in what is in effect a tribal war. Yes we are the strongest tribe, but we already know that. The question that I am pondering is whether we are the smartest. Have we learned from our big mistakes in this clash? Will we take this opportunity to put our other foot in the trap, to slap the tar-baby with our free hand, or will we take this as a moment for understanding.

This man was not the face of one of the great religions of the world, Islam. He does not represent anyone else of importance, just some crazed radical thugs. Can we take the teachings of our faith, learn more about others, empathize with their plight on this planet, understand that their dreams are the same as ours and, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us, that “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.” Let's not let this moment pass without grasping the light that is being offered and not let jingoism, pride and hate move us further into darkness.