ELATION I find it difficult try to explain away a feeling I do not have.
There seems to be something which keeps me from getting as excited and pleased as some people seem to be about the killing of the Number 2 man in the world wide terrorist organization in Iraq. I think it is natural to see average people equate all good and all evil within individuals and specific persons in the Iraqi setting, but our thinking in the west is - wrought on a somewhat higher plain. It should not be necessary to develop or build a symbolic individual to personify the beliefs, ideas, concepts and paraded as decorated tokens in the Al Qujida procession.
I doubt seriously doubt if the dead man was such a great help to Ben Laden wherever he may be. It may well be that repressed or falsified "facts"within and around the overall group which have been working together to improve some semblance of doing all sorts of things seeking to forward their long-range. Both "leaders",I feel, have far more help from other Arabic powers and a few "what's-in-i-for me?" individuals around the world in different settings than we realize. The borders of all states around Iraq are porous, shaky, indefinite, and most have wilderness conditions as their normal doormats. Hiding places are plentiful; trails weave among each other endlessly and local views of loyalty are flexible and usually writ in sand.
We have, I feel, been having been having border problems for some time now in places far removed from Mexico and Canada.
All areas around Iraq are suspect and others - elsewhere - will now begin to be seen as participants to a far greater extent than we ourselves have ever realized. I have some rather vague feeling in my bones which keep telling me again and again that all is far from being "hunky-dory" in the Middle East and several "elsewheres" which come to mind all too quickly.
Some people I know are elated. "We got Number Two!"
Did we? I wonder about that!
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 6-9-06 [c363wds]
