Dead or Alive... When We Get Around To It

On the sixth anniversary of 9/11, how ashamed we must all feel that the perpetrators roam free? How insincere any condolence must feel to the family members of those lost, that we allowed our sense of obligation to them be diverted for a war of choice, that itself goes on? How weak must our resolve appear, to the eyes of the world, in that one mass murderer can carry out an act like this and be free to gloat about it for six subsequent anniversaries? How hard must it be, for the victims looking down on us, to see us put so much blood and treasure into “Daddy’s Unflushed Doody”, while their killer sits in relative comfort behind an imaginary line that we haven’t the courage or resources to cross?

Osama bin Laden is free, and apparently has access to a Rite Aid or Walgreen’s to get his Just for Men dye. Meanwhile, George W Bush is suffering the early consequences of his own atrocities. When scores are finally tallied up, it’s my estimation W will be on his way to historical irrelevance, if he’s lucky, while bin Laden will be quietly killed by troops sent in by a Democrat. But he’ll outlast Bush as a political force in the US, which should fill the GOP with shame as they seek to defend the war that diverts our attention from resolving that issue.

This president kills people, that’s always been his thing. As governor, he laughed at executed criminals whose appeals piqued his lowbrow sense of humor. He killed then, kills now, and will continue to kill until he leaves office. The abnormality is when he doesn’t kill someone. So it is with some confusion that we wonder at OBL’s ability to taunt us, six years later, while this president seeks to shorten the appeals process for those sentenced to death, but makes no effort to get him. There will be no clemency for bin Laden, no pleas for compassion or lenience, no political consequence for quenching his blood thirst. You get to kill him, and no one will be bothered by it. This one is free George, so why do you refuse to do it?

He refuses because bin Laden serves a purpose for him. As long as he’s out there, he’s a threat, and we will fearfully give tacit permission for his bloody misadventures throughout the Muslim world. Only after he’s catalyzed every neo-con objective in the oil-producing world, will bin Laden become a target of the Bush administration, and that won’t happen in this term.
The fact of the matter is if we want bin Laden caught or killed, people are going to have to do it themselves. The best way to get OBL’s head on a pike would be to up the ante on him to $250 million. Then, crawl up the ass of whoever comes to collect, being that they’ve probably had the opportunity all along and done nothing. After all, they’ll have to pay for denying us the honor of giving bin Laden his “due process”.