Like millions of other Americans, I tuned in to CNN to watch President Obama publicly declare Osama bin Laden dead last night. Even before the president’s announcement, American news outlets informed the world of the al-Qaeda leader’s death, inciting patriotic mobs around the White House and countless bin Laden-related status updates on my Facebook news feed.
Only one status has stuck with me since the announcement. A friend wrote that he didn’t like how people were talking about bin Laden’s death as if it wasn’t a loss of human life.
At first, I thought that the terrorist’s death wasn’t worth grief. But after watching the mobs on CNN chant, “USA” and sing American anthems, I realized I was embarrassed by an American “patriotism” that was rowdy, obnoxious and ignorant.
The fact that Americans are ecstatic over the death of a mass-murderer doesn’t bother me. But I am bothered by the country’s ignorance about what has been sacrificed in order for this day to come.
We celebrate victories when we manage to conquer cities, broker peace deals and establish puppet governments overseas, but we usually fail to acknowledge the countless lives-both American and foreign-given to do so. Thousands of soldiers have died in the so-called War on Terror, and hundreds of thousands of civilians have perished as well.
For nearly 10 years, the US military has played huge roles in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. While the civilians in these countries faced and continue to face death, rape and destruction every day, we go unaware of what we have indirectly caused and approved of.
In President Obama’s speech yesterday, he said the America people did not ask for this war, but that it came to our shores. The civilians of the countries in which we’ve have fought for the past decade didn’t ask for wars either. They were punished for the acts of a few.
Because of these acts, there will be empty places at Afghani dinner tables, Pakistani children will grow up without the love of parents and Iraqis will never feel their children’s embraces.
Yesterday, Obama said that Bin Laden’s death should be welcomed by all those who believe in peace and human dignity. If we want to actually uphold these values, we must care for and honor all human life around the globe, not just that of our own citizens.
Safiya Merchant is a Medill freshman and DAILY staffer. She can be reached at [email protected] and followed at twitter.com/safiyamerchant.
