This should be mandatory reading on OBL's death

[FourScore]

Chris Hedges Speaks on Osama bin Laden’s Death
Posted on May 1, 2011

Chris Hedges, speaking at a Truthdig fundraising event in Los Angeles on Sunday evening, made these remarks about Osama bin Laden’s death.

I know that because of this announcement, that reportedly Osama bin Laden was killed, Bob wanted me to say a few words about it … about al-Qaida. I spent a year of my life covering al-Qaida for The New York Times. It was the work in which I, and other investigative reporters, won the Pulitzer Prize. And I spent seven years of my life in the Middle East. I was the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. I’m an Arabic speaker. And when someone came over and told ... me the news, my stomach sank. I’m not in any way naive about what al-Qaida is. It’s an organization that terrifies me. I know it intimately.

But I’m also intimately familiar with the collective humiliation that we have imposed on the Muslim world. The expansion of military occupation that took place throughout, in particular the Arab world, following 9/11—and that this presence of American imperial bases, dotted, not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Doha—is one that has done more to engender hatred and acts of terror than anything ever orchestrated by Osama bin Laden.

And the killing of bin Laden, who has absolutely no operational role in al-Qaida—that’s clear—he’s kind of a spiritual mentor, a kind of guide … he functions in many of the ways that Hitler functioned for the Nazi Party. We were just talking with Warren about Kershaw’s great biography of Hitler, which I read a few months ago, where you hold up a particular ideological ideal and strive for it. That was bin Laden’s role. But all actual acts of terror, which he may have signed off on, he no way planned.

I think that one of the most interesting aspects of the whole rise of al-Qaida is that when Saddam Hussein … I covered the first Gulf War, went into Kuwait with the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, was in Basra during the Shiite uprising until I was captured and taken prisoner by the Iraqi Republican Guard. I like to say I was embedded with the Iraqi Republican Guard. Within that initial assault and occupation of Kuwait, bin Laden appealed to the Saudi government to come back and help organize the defense of his country. And he was turned down. And American troops came in and implanted themselves on Muslim soil...

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/chris_hedges_speaks_on_osama_bin_ladens_death_20110502/

[Marblehead]

1. Chris Hedges

is just a kook, what does he know??

:sarcasm:

[PufPuf23]

2. Hedge's history in journalism in the Middle East was the most interesting part of the article,

Hedge's has good cred to me.

Imagine being captured in Basra by the Iraqui Republican Guard during the Shite uprising post Gulf War I.

[Marblehead]

4. sarcasm

the man knows his shit

[PufPuf23]

5. I agree and saw your sarcasm and should have responded direct to OP.

Hedge's credentials are impeccable IMO.

[RainDog]

3. excellent read

I disagree that we taught anyone violence, however. The history of violence in the region gives lie to that idea.

However, Hedges offers a needed counterpoint to the chants of "USA."

I also agree with Hedges in his view of OBL as a symbolic "Hitler" for many - and as such, tho Gandhi was able to rise above the call for revenge - most of us in the US would have also been glad and relieved to hear that he was no longer walking among us as well. - and we would have held him fully responsible for any crimes committed in the name of his organization.

[ThomCat]

8. I think we did.

Our neo-colonial history says that we did a lot of teaching in that region.

We, and other 1st world nations, divided up the region and dominated them for their oil from the very beginning.

That kind of colonialism depends on keeping most of their people poor and helpless, and keeping puppets in power who will cooperate in keeping their own people poor and helpless.

Look at our history just in Iran for an open-book example. A democracy in the region, where we turned them into a dictatorship, and then they overthrew that dictatorship to become a theocracy. We can't very well complain about their form of government not being one we like when they had a functioning democracy and WE destroyed it.

Look at the history of Israel. Israel could not exist as it does, would not have the military power that it does, and would not be able to exert the constant ongoing physical and military strangle-hold over all of the Palestinian people if not for Billions of dollars and vast military support from the United States every year. That support started with the very founding of Israel. We are partners in the violence that is the day-to-day reality of what Israel is and does.

Look at Egypt, where we were the force propping up Mubarak. His government was the 2nd or 3rd largest recipient of military foreign aid every year. Could he have endured for so long as the strong man dictator without US support? Doubtful.

Then look at all the aid we gave to Iraq when they were fighting Iran, because they were fighting Iran. That was back when Sadam was friend of the US.

And, of course, the wars themselves were the most direct lessons of all. if your entire world is a war-zone you learn a lot about violence. You learn a lot about hatred. We taught all those lessons. We're still teaching those lessons.

[RainDog]

10. violent conflict in the region did not start with us

and it won't end with us.

there is a long, long history of empire in the region that had just as much violence attached to its era as is attached to the recent history of American/British/French empirical actions.

that's why I say it's a lie - it misrepresents the middle east as a mythical eden before recent history. that's simply not true.

[ThomCat]

11. Nobody claims that violence started with us.

Or that it was an Eden before us.

There is no place on earth that was EVER free of violence. There has always been violence everywhere for as long as there have been people.

That doesn't negate the point that the US has been bringing violence to the Middle East deliberately and systematically for generations now. The US has been the single greatest source and fund for bankrolling violence in the middle east.

[RainDog]

12. and it doesn't negate the point that the US is not the origin of violence in the region

so, it's a win-win - yes, the US has made decisions that are based upon selfish geopolitical considerations that, to me, were short-sighted and unethical.

Hedges' comment talked about us bringing violence to the region and I'm saying that that is short-sighted too.

[ThomCat]

13. So, when we overthrow a government, that isn't bringing violence?

When we installed puppet regimes in power in order to suppress the people in various nations and controlled their natural resources, that didn't result in any violence? And if it did, that didn't come ultimately from us?

The neo-colonial history, truly carving up territory and owning it and the people in it because we had military might and they didn't, that wasn't bring violence?

When we are the primary arms supplier to every army, that wasn't bringing violence?

None of our history there was bringing violence? None of that counts somehow? Why?

We have a military larger than every other military in the world, combined. We have been the world's superpower for 60 years, and a powerful nation for longer than that, while that region has been a target for control and colonization by 1st world nations for the past 150 years. None of that is important?

I find this ability to discount our nation's violence disturbing. Our nation as a whole has a habit of blindly ignoring our responsibility for the violence we peddle around the world, and push upon nations weaker than ourselves. It seems to be part of our culture to deny responsibility for what our nation does. People seem to think that only good stuff counts. But it's especially depressing when people who think they are progressives buy into that kind of nationalism.

[RainDog]

14. what you find here is what you want to see

no one is discounting our nation's violence to say that it's not true to say that we "taught violence" to people in the region.

that's ALL this is about.

you're trying to make it about something else entirely - which is certainly your right to do.

however, you indignation is the result of your creation of an entirely different issue than the one I raised.

and, if you want to have a time with that issue - fine. but you're not talking about anything that has anything to do with what I said in the context of comments about Hedges remarks.

He's a great speaker. Sometimes he's a bit too "pulpit" for me, but I recognize that's also part of his power.

[riderinthestorm]

9. +1 nt

[TTUBatfan2008]

6. Should have just sent special ops from the very beginning...

into Afghanistan. And obviously should have never gone to Iraq at all.

[hifiguy]

7. Thanks for the link to

that most excellent piece!

K&R