JUSTICE OR REVENGE ON BIN LADEN: A MODERN NOTE OF TRIUMPH

Federal authorities and the U S Military found that seeking justice or taking revenge for the 11 September 2001 atrocities posed something of a major problem. To start, all the terrorists responsible for crashing the planes died in the disasters. Taking revenge on corpses is hard, but possible as witnessed by Oliver Cromwell’s remain after the restoration of the English monarchy. The bodies of the terrorist pilots got burned and blasted; therefore, the Bush administration focused on plans to get the planners of 9-11, particularly the head of Al-Quada Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden proves yet again that in societies which emphasize the role of collective teamwork, one person can indeed change a big chunk of the world. In his case, bin Laden left his chunk a worse place than he found it. His death last Sunday constituted something of an anticlimax in the War on Terror, so-called, even though he still had a major leadership role.

Even in death, Osama bin Laden manages to create problems both in Washington and in the various international capitols.

It has always been a problem that the Bush / Cheney Administration and the Pentagon military complex in the Rumsfeld / Cheney era did not capture bin Laden alive back in 2003. Ideally, our troops should have captured him early on and sent him to trial at a willing international court for crimes against humanity. Instead the whole administration got bogged down in fighting an Iraq war where none of the locals were involved in planning, executive or financing the 9-11 atrocity.

It would have also been ideal if the Seal Six had taken bin Laden alive for the same scenario in an international court. Better late than never, they say. It would also been better if bin Laden had been armed with some sort of standard military weapon when shot dead.

A few days after the bin Laden dispatch, I thought about a radio broadcast I have heard on Old Time Radio called “On a Note of Triumph.” Written, produced and directed by Norman Corwin with music by Bernard Herrmann, CBS Radio broadcast it live the evening of Victory in Europe, 8 May 1945. I listened to the recording again a few days ago. Several sections of it relevant even today. Corwin’s everyman character in this broadcast asks four questions, one of which is “What have we learned from our fighting World War II?” Corwin’s answers to that question still seem remarkably modern, even if they require a little updating. I have placed Corwin’s script is in courier type. My update is in arial italics.

The lessons out of World War II is that – We learned nothing out of World War I.

The lesson of the Second Iraq War is that we did not learn anything from the First Iraq War.

Nations that do not know what they want will soon get what they do not want.

The east coast of the United States is the west bank of the Rhine.

The east coast of the United States is the west bank of the Jordan, Euphrates. Tigris, Kabul and/or Indus.

The defense of Seattle starts in Shanghai.

The Defense of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver
starts in Beijing.

A soft answer does not turn away wrath. If you offer your other cheek to a Nazi, he will blow your head off.

If we offer the other cheek to a terrorist, he will blow your head off.

Local newspapers with big circulations right at home can lie with a straight face seven days a week and be as filthy and fascist as pamphlets on the streets of Berlin.


Local cable news networks with big ratings can lie with a straight face seven days a week and be as filthy, corrupt and reactionary as pamphlets on the streets of Tehran, Islamabad, and Kabul.

Those who say they wanted to make the world safe from communism really made the world safe for fascism.

Those who say they want to make the world safe from terrorism somehow will wind up making the world safe for Authoritarian totalitarianism, whether of American or International varieties.

We learned that women can fight and work not just look pretty and cook

We learned the value of allies where any local conflict sooner or later escalates into a world war.

We learned the problems of having allies who harbored Osama bin Laden right under their noses and probably with at least their knowledge if not their indulgence.

Some men fight for power. Most will fight to be free.

Freedom is not something to be won. It is to be renewed, like soil after a good crop. Freedom must be wound like a faithful clock. It must be exercised like muscles after a marathon.

Today, we find that American security, Local Security constitues more than just the question of Mexican immigration: it concerns international collectivist morality and whether nations have the will, stamina, and rectitude to stand up for it.