Treadmill Thoughts

So Osama bin Laden, the scourge of the Western World, has been eliminated. The most intriguing part of that whole story (for egocentric little old me) is where he was hiding out: a place called Abbottabad. For those of you who don’t know, my last name is Abbott. Lord save me from the hilariously witty, topical jokes that have been, and will be spawned. Fuckin’ bin Laden.

Anyway, this morning, in an ambitious drive towards becoming physically healthy (and, as a result, emotionally and mentally healthy as well), I spent about thirty-five minutes on my mother’s treadmill huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf with emphysema. In between gasping for breath, dodging my belly as it bounced into my face and cursing myself for being a lazy bitch, I got to thinking about this whole Osama bin Laden thing.

I don’t know how many people remember the celebratory nature of the video footage coming out of various parts of the Middle East in 2001, just after September 11. I remember. I remember the singing, the beaming smiles, the shouts of joy, the dancing in the streets, the exuberantly anti-American landscape of certain parts of the Middle East at the time. The funny thing is, I almost thought I was watching replays of that footage last week when the reports of bin Laden’s killing first came out. The only difference is that the people in these videos weren’t from the Middle East; they were Americans. The flags being waved were American flags.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying the guy didn’t deserve what he got. I mean, he claimed responsibility for several of the world’s worst terror attacks in recent times. He presented himself to the world as someone who relished in the downfall of the West, and who was ruthless and merciless in his pursuit of this. I’m simply pointing out the eerie similarities between the celebrations 10 years ago, and those now. What exactly is being celebrated? I don’t think the death of bin Laden is going to decrease the threat of terror from al Qaeda. I don’t think terrorists are currently cowering in basements and caves the world over, shaking uncontrollably and screaming out that terrorism has died because bin Laden has been shot. In fact, I think they may very well be starting a campaign to martyrize the man, and use him as a catalyst for further, possibly greater, terror.

If I were a pragmatist (and those who know me well would scoff if I tried to pass myself off as one) I would say that the greatest victory in the killing of Osama bin Laden came for the PR machine that runs the USA. This was no real victory against terrorism. I can understand and appreciate the sense of relief and closure that many Americans no doubt feel as a result of the death of the man who so violently shook their reality on September 11th, 2001. I am, however, curious as to why he was summarily killed, rather than brought to more public justice on the world stage, like Saddam Hussein was. I truly feel that bin Laden’s death has very little to do with the essence of a “war on terrorism” and more to do with revenge, with a certain amount of immodest PR spin thrown in for good measure. There’s always more in the mortar than the pestle, and international politics is never transparent.