I posted my thoughts elsewhere, but I’ll put them here as well.
I admit I was much more taken with the discovery of the Air France Flight 447 black box in the uncharted depths of the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere in the Mid-Atlantic (in more than 13,000 feet of water, no less), than I was with the death at the hands of the USA’s special forces of Osama Bin Laden in his walled suburban enclave in Pakistan.
The former was a wonder of technical expertise and exploration of the depths of the ocean. The latter was a very meticulous and well performed series of actions by an array of clever and dangerous people. The black box recovery was by far a much more positive result than any story layering added to the events of 9/11 by the death of this wealthy and reclusive fanatic.
The Air France Airbus 330 went down in a thunderstorm in June of 2009. The remains of the craft wound up over 2 and a half miles deep somewhere in the Mid-Atlantic ridge, well beyond the reach of radar and any signal reception from the black box. Almost 40 million dollars has been spent on technology and expertise in order to locate and recover this important recording device. It may lead us to a better understanding of just what happened to the 228 souls lost on that flight. The ability demonstrated by the people involved in the Air France search to explore and recover a critical object at what is currently our most profound terrestrial frontier was both amazing and uplifting.
As for OSB, the guy is dead. Killed in a firefight. DNA’d & buried at sea. Finis. The fallout from this event, like the rest of the trainwreck that is fundamentalist interaction, will go on for a while until another set of horrors overlays our current mess.
Plan9 of TFP said it well about the demise of OBL. “It doesn’t matter that he’s dead (or off being interrogated somewhere). He won his war. We cowered and changed our way of life.
All the “freedoms” we talk about defending we gave up to give ourselves the illusion of safety. We won’t get that freedom back.
A decade of dead/crippled kids and a gajillion dollars that would have been better spent on education or bouncy castles… gone.”
I’ve thunk this thunk many a time the last decade. Wondered at the wondrous hypocrisy that has us get knotted up over personal expression and the right to think and dress and act the way we wish, side by side with the real life destruction and dismissal of hard earned rights and freedoms. The whining is coupled with the terrible morass of “security” that is such a brake on our lives, our wealth and our energy. Of course hypocrisy and indignation is being expressed by fundamentalists of all stripes, backgrounds and inclinations.
The complete inability of people everywhere to just let each other be sometimes staggers the mind. What evolutionary quirk has resulted in this universal bullshit we shovel all over each other? I mean, we have been pulling this crap since we were squabbling over cave rights with the Neanderthal. Enough already, people.
sheesh
Hmmm…. Wealthy fanatic…or American ally….perhaps both. The whole 9/11 tragedy is a horrible reminder that the militaristic mindset of “those who would be in control”.
I am saddened by the actions of our own “Fearless Leader” as more and more evidence points to skullduggery and lies. From Harper’s early affiliation with white supremacy groups and publications, early appearances at bilderberg and c.f.r. meetings…to recent revelations involving key cabinet members, and restrictions toward peaceful protest and the press. It becomes more apparent that civil liberties and real democracy are threatened.
Secret meetings among world leaders and the formation of policy by the stroke of a pen with no public input……..the S.P.P. etc. speaks to a dark future.
I fear we will see more examples of the G20 brutality in the near future.