Ian Murphy is the Green Party candidate in the NY-26 special congressional election on May 24. This is Murphy’s Statement on the Death of bin Laden.
The bad man is dead, but I don’t feel like celebrating. I’m pleased many Americans feel that justice has been done, but the slaying of our own monster offers me little joy. It’s a bittersweet victory, observed through the lens of history.
It’s been 32 years since the CIA first sold arms to Osama bin Laden and the mujahideen. Before 9/11. Before the Cole and the African embassy bombings. Before the Soviets ever set foot in Afghanistan. Our dead arch-villain was an ally. Let us never forget.
We fueled radical Islam in Afghanistan to help repel the godless USSR. The CIA taught bin Laden how to wage violent Jihad. We then left the place wrecked, poor and militant. Soon after, we’d have our troops staged on the Muslim holy ground of Saudi Arabia to expel another of our monsters from Kuwait. In this hour of triumph, let’s not be blind to these ugly truths.
The tragic events of 9/11 were partly a result of our own imperialist foreign policy. And if President Obama’s address offers indication, the death of bin Laden does nothing to slow this empire’s march. The wars go on. The ill-defined missions continue apace. Our torture chamber in Guantanamo Bay remains a terrorist recruitment tool. The Patriot Act still exists. Our own government is still spying on us. The wars go on, and bankruptcy haunts us at home.
So forgive me, my fellow Americans, for not joining you in the streets. Forgive me, for not reveling in this victory. Our soldiers are still killing and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the economic terrorists still roam free on Wall St. The wars go on.
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