OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD
Israel Shamir
http://www.israelshamir.net/
It is hard to assess correctly the towering figure of Osama Bin Laden.
Every fighter against Empire deserves some respect; rarely they are wonderful universally adored creatures. He inspired awe, he fought, he did not surrender, he died.
We do not know whether he actually stood behind 9/11; but many people all over the world have thought so and felt admiration for the man.
He was a prince, his beginning was fortuitous and his end was glorious: they did not show him with purple-painted gums, he was not dressed in the demeaning orange jumpsuit, he was not waterboarded to oblivion, he was not humiliated.
He went down fighting; this is honourable death for a Jihad warrior.
He was buried at sea like a great captain he was.
His organisation did a lot of awful things: they conspired and fought against Hezbollah, slaughtered Shias in Iraq, undermined Qaddafi, hated Hamas.
Begotten in sin, they ruined Afghanistan, hanged gentle Najibullah, probably the best ruler of the unhappy country.
They supported ethnic cleansing of ‘infidels’ in Chechnya and in the Balkans.
They never ever attacked Israel: they preserved their vigour for Sayyed Nasrallah.
Like a dreadful beast nurtured in the CIA secret labs, once they rebelled against their merciless creator and attacked the US on 9/11.
In most places they did what the US authorities wanted to be done.
He was greater than, but similar to Jonas Savimbi of Angola or to Shamil Basayev of Chechnya, and hopefully after his death his organisation will vanish like Unita and Basayev bands did.
But in the mind of the masses he will be remembered (justly or not) as the architect of the only successful response of the oppressed to the Empire on its own soil.
And that ensured him greatness of his own and a place in history.
One can feel only contempt for the mob around the White House celebrating his death.
I’ll say to the Americans: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles”.
And to Osama bin Laden I’ll say: rest in peace.