It’s understandable that people
should feel a sense of relief with the death of Osama bin Laden. Yet, his
legacy, what the U.S. government did after 9/11, must also be put to a final
rest.
The country must also accept
some other facts: Our own foreign policy gave bin Laden the impetus to attack
us in 2001 and it also helped establish the Taliban and make bin Laden a
seasoned terrorist and guerilla fighter.
The U.S. backed the Mujahideen
when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan during the Reagan administration. It
was from that organization that the Taliban emerged. Bin Laden, a Saudi native,
also went to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. U.S. arms and taxpayer money went
to support the enemies of our enemy.
Note that the U.S. also
supported Saddam Hussein of Iraq in his war against Iran, also while Ronald
Reagan was president. One president later, when Hussein invaded Kuwait,
President George H.W. Bush waged war against our former ally. Our military was
stationed in Saudi Arabia during that first Gulf war.
Having a foreign military in
his home country angered bin Laden. That, and our continued meddling in the
affairs of other countries—specifically in the Middle East—is what led to the
9/11 attacks.
Our government’s heavy-handed
policies overseas continue today. Making things worse is that the heavy hand is
in effect here at home. The legacy of 9/11 led to the Patriot Act where federal
agents can now write their own search warrants without going to a judge. Old
men and women—even 6-year-old girls—are frisked at airports without any
evidence of having committed a crime. At some airports passengers are frisked
even after going through the scanners that generate nude images of people.
Phone calls and e-mails are
intercepted and home computer files can be taken while the “suspect” isn’t even
allowed to tell anyone. “Land of the free?” Hardly.
The assassination of Osama bin
Laden was, in itself, an illegal act outside the rule of law, albeit a most
popular one. But the popularity of the act does not make it correct, does not
make it moral.
(The president of the
United States does not have the legal authority to order the assassination of
anyone, even though President Obama ordered the assassination of a U.S. citizen—Anwar
al-Wlaki—last year.) Nor did bin Laden’s heinous
act make the ensuing degradation of civil liberties by our own government
correct or moral.
When the Soviet Union collapsed
there was talk of a peace dividend—the idea that the cold war mentality and its
associated expenses and militarism would shift to more peaceful endeavors since
the “evil empire” was gone. That didn’t happen. The United States remains a
republic that morphed into the remaining post-WWII empire.
Can the republic re-emerge with
liberties restored? Yes, but the government won’t relent willingly. Restoring
what is—or was—right about the United States can only happen if the people
demand it. Ironically, the people must be as committed to reclaiming the
principles of liberty and a constitutionally limited government as Osama bin
Laden was to its destruction.
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