Last night President Obama announced Osama bin Laden - leader of Al-Qaeda and the man who claimed to be the intellectual author of the September 11 attacks - is dead. The news of Osama Bin Laden's death quickly resonated worldwide and prompted some of the boldest, starkest headlines in newspapers across the world, his demise welcomed by all. However, the most interesting notion about this piece of news, is the vast array of headlines that ripped through the newspapers in the U.S., even though they are essentially communicating the same basic piece of information.
'Killed', 'Dead', 'Justice', 'U.S. Operation Kills Bin Laden', 'U.S. Kills Al-Qaida Leader in Firefight in Pakistan', 'Obama Gets Bin Laden', 'U.S. Forces Kill Osama Bin Laden', Obama: Justice Has Been Done'. A few were more colorful, 'Got Him! Vengeance at Last! U.S. Nails the Bastard' and 'Rot in Hell'.
All titles hold true. All blatantly and disdainfully proud. But are all perceived without distortion by personal feelings and prejudices? Without a hint of bias? Then, how about Assassinated? Or Unlawfully Executed? They seem to be conspicuously absent from all the headlines!
Please keep in mind, that I, like any other American, loathe the man, his ideology, and the terrorist activities that he masterminded, but 1) personal feelings should not interfere with objective journalism 2) Time for the U.S. to re-examine its foreign policy.
While many people in the United States may feel vindication in the death of the man behind the 9/11 attacks, some of those biased headlines bring to mind a time when our great country drummed up a motley collection of headlines to get validity for invading Iraq on the basis of lies. The operation that claimed the life of Bin Laden is an action that signifies failure on our part, an action that led to answering violence with more violence. How have we allowed the horrifying violence against us to turn into atrocious violence by us? Invading Iraq and leaving that country in ruins, torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraib, imprisoning people without trial in Guantanamo... The United States has violated civil liberties at a cost of over $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives that were claimed by these wars.
This is the a time for us to open a new chapter in U.S. foreign policy and to respond with solutions that don't perpetuate violence, but rather, learn from the wave of the non-violent movements that are bringing - a once unfathomable - change to the political structure of the Middle East.
Our administration needs to take a sabbatical to re-examine our failed war policies that have tarnished our reputation as Americans and as a leader of the free world, and adopt new strategy. Let's regain our failed status as the the World Leader and engage in negotiating peace, humanitarian aid (and I certainly do not mean more aid to Israel) and let's restore the shine of our lackluster crown.
Below, are some of the headlines in papers that covered the big news.
'Killed', 'Dead', 'Justice', 'U.S. Operation Kills Bin Laden', 'U.S. Kills Al-Qaida Leader in Firefight in Pakistan', 'Obama Gets Bin Laden', 'U.S. Forces Kill Osama Bin Laden', Obama: Justice Has Been Done'. A few were more colorful, 'Got Him! Vengeance at Last! U.S. Nails the Bastard' and 'Rot in Hell'.
All titles hold true. All blatantly and disdainfully proud. But are all perceived without distortion by personal feelings and prejudices? Without a hint of bias? Then, how about Assassinated? Or Unlawfully Executed? They seem to be conspicuously absent from all the headlines!
Please keep in mind, that I, like any other American, loathe the man, his ideology, and the terrorist activities that he masterminded, but 1) personal feelings should not interfere with objective journalism 2) Time for the U.S. to re-examine its foreign policy.
While many people in the United States may feel vindication in the death of the man behind the 9/11 attacks, some of those biased headlines bring to mind a time when our great country drummed up a motley collection of headlines to get validity for invading Iraq on the basis of lies. The operation that claimed the life of Bin Laden is an action that signifies failure on our part, an action that led to answering violence with more violence. How have we allowed the horrifying violence against us to turn into atrocious violence by us? Invading Iraq and leaving that country in ruins, torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraib, imprisoning people without trial in Guantanamo... The United States has violated civil liberties at a cost of over $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives that were claimed by these wars.
This is the a time for us to open a new chapter in U.S. foreign policy and to respond with solutions that don't perpetuate violence, but rather, learn from the wave of the non-violent movements that are bringing - a once unfathomable - change to the political structure of the Middle East.
Our administration needs to take a sabbatical to re-examine our failed war policies that have tarnished our reputation as Americans and as a leader of the free world, and adopt new strategy. Let's regain our failed status as the the World Leader and engage in negotiating peace, humanitarian aid (and I certainly do not mean more aid to Israel) and let's restore the shine of our lackluster crown.
Below, are some of the headlines in papers that covered the big news.
