Marc Ash writes: "America after bin Laden is sadly an America more in line with bin Laden's own ideological perspective. We are a more intolerant, more repressive and socially restrictive society than we ever had been before bin Laden. Many of the most draconian new social measures have come at the hands of those who postured themselves as bin Laden's most ardent foes, and 'freedom's' staunchest defenders. If the object was to, 'defeat bin Laden, not become him,' clearly from a standpoint of social justice in America, we have failed."

Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan during the war with Russia in 1989. (photo: Sipa Press/Rex Features)

Post bin Laden America

By Marc Ash, Reader Supported News

27 May 11

Reader Supported News | Perspective

sama bin Laden is dead.

Of course he deserved it, that is not the question. The question is, what did we deserve?

The attacks of September 11th, 2001, came out of a clear blue sky, and out of the blue it seemed, came the news that the mastermind of the attacks, Osama bin Laden, was dead. Killed - President Barack Obama announced in a special late night address from the White House - by a US Special Forces team.

Brushed aside by the jubilant young crowds who flocked to the White House that evening were any questions about the legality of the US sending an extra-judicial assassination team to foreign soil, in this case Pakistan, to carry out the killing. It is, however, in that disregard for international law in pursuit of the head of Osama bin Laden, that bin Laden's own legacy survives him.

America after bin Laden is sadly an America more in line with bin Laden's own ideological perspective. We are a more intolerant, more repressive and socially restrictive society than we ever had been before bin Laden. Many of the most draconian new social measures have come at the hands of those who postured themselves as bin Laden's most ardent foes, and "freedom's" staunchest defenders. If the object was to, "defeat bin Laden, not become him," clearly from a standpoint of social justice in America, we have failed.

The issues are stark and substantive. Political surveillance and repression in the US are at levels not seen since the darkest days of Joseph McCarthy's communist witch hunts and J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO.

We are now an America that rationalizes and debates the merits of torture. From the talk shows to the floor of congress - that, which for one hundred and fifty years has been unspeakable conduct for an American government, now has openly shameless defenders. Among them, a prominent law professor from Berkeley, and a sitting judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Both apparently enjoying unassailable careers. Both legal advisors to George W. Bush who crafted legal opinions justifying - if renaming - what the world calls torture.

Perhaps bin Laden was rendered lifeless by SEAL Team 6, but he is very much alive in the way we live our lives today in this land that's known as freedom.

The government is now allowed to tap your phone without a warrant. Repeat: The government is now allowed to tap your phone without a warrant. In fact, Congress said so twice. First in a knee-jerk piece of legislation that bin Laden must have had a good laugh over called the USA PATRIOT Act, and then, in case you didn't hear it the first time, in the FISA Amendments Act, which expressly validated warrantless wiretapping, and retroactively indemnified the telecommunications companies from lawsuits for having done it at the behest of the Bush administration.

Osama bin Laden, the gift that keeps on giving.

Surveillance of anti-war groups, no problem, blame it on bin Laden. Free speech zones, cameras, cameras everywhere, warfare and military glorification restored after decades of post-Vietnam distain, citizen's rights to privacy all but canceled, separation of church and state open to interpretation. The list goes on and on. Worst of all, education vilified, and ignorance encouraged.

It's Osama's America now.

Maybe the attacks of September 11th and the news of bin Laden's death came out of the blue, but Osama bin Laden certainly did not. The offspring of a wealthy Saudi bin Laden family heavily connected to the Saudi royal family, western interests and particularly US oil interests, Osama was educated in England at Oxford, trained and armed by US operatives to fight with the Mujahideen against the Soviets after the CIA baited them into the so-called Afghan trap. Robert Scheer lays it all out brilliantly in his essay titled "A Monster of Our Own Creation."

The Osama bin Laden that we have come to dread was indeed a monster of our own creation, but more precisely a tool of the same capitalist, colonialist complex that benefits from the fear he and they thrive on.

In 1968, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young in their song, "Chicago," asked a question: In a land that's known as freedom, how can such a thing be fair?

Marc Ash is the founder and director of Reader Supported News, as well as Truthout.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

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+4 # Capn Canard 2011-05-27 07:45

Osama bin Laden being dead does precipitate some changes in public opinion and that could be all it does. If so then that could be helpful for our sellout President but it serves no real useful purpose unless the war is over and soldiers are brought home. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

+25 # fredboy 2011-05-27 07:59

It is as if enabling the 9/11 attacks flipped an evil switch in America, unleashing a continuing current of fear and hatred and control. It was here all along, just under the surface, waiting to be awakened.

-27 # hunkydorydecor@msn.com 2011-05-27 08:21

Really, Marc? bin Laden's ideological perspective could be compared more closely with Hitler and other insane megalomaniacs than ours. Ideology only goes to the point of common sense.

+25 # artful 2011-05-27 08:26

Sadly, the author is on target . . . oops, I mean,simply, correct. We have become what we feared . . . and fought. The America I thought I knew and loved is now past. We are watching a new "decline and fall of . . ."

+11 # DAChrist 2011-05-27 09:03

"We are a more intolerant, more repressive and socially restrictive society than we ever had been before bin Laden" Really? You seem to be yearning for the good old days when the U.S. was perfect. Sadly, we have always been a flawed society. Our country (like most people I know) has high ideals and high standards and our hearts are generally in the right place. But rarely have our policies toward "THEM" (whoever them happens to be at the time) not been intolerant, repressive and socially restrictive. Think indigenous people, blacks, the poor, non-christians, gays & lesbians... admit it, a long list even before OBL. Just keeping it real.

+27 # tedrey 2011-05-27 09:17

1. Our soldiers are told that they are fighting for our freedoms: for our freedom of speech, freedom of belief, freedom from want, freedom to vote, freedom to work, freedom to bargain, freedom to own a home, freedom from government coercion, freedom to protest, freedom to live in a democratic republic . . .

2. These freedoms are now under attack; some have already been destroyed, and all have been fearfully limited, not by any foreign, but by powerful domestic enemies.

3. Our soldiers have pledged to protect our country against all enemies, domestic or foreign.

4. If they understood this, would our soldiers come home to protect our country from these vicious attacks, before it's too late?

Tell them to come home.

+25 # jwb110 2011-05-27 09:47

At the time the US Supreme Court decided the 2000 election it was clear that the US had become another version of "I, Claudius". The Republic is falling away and at best we will only get the "promises" of a Senate that after this "emergency" the Republic will be returned to us. So far, bread and circuses.
Patriotism is the last bastion of scoundrels and in the name of protecting America/Homeland the Constitution has been gutted.

This is not the America of my childhood my adolescents or a my early adult life. The Oligarchy of the wealthy and the politically connected has become the way of American Life supported by a consumer society that has been dumbed down, robbed of services for their tax dollars, and made unknown second class citizens.

Shame on all of us.

+13 # 1goingforth 2011-05-27 10:04

It seems we have changed places with those in the Middle East demanding freedom. While they attempt to overthrow the plutocracies of the rich oppressing the masses, in the U.S. the masses are increasing oppressed as the right wing blitz propels the populace to work against it's own best interests, shut down the voice of the people (unions) in order to make living wages. How ironic!

+14 # BETTY BROCK 2011-05-27 10:12

"WE THE PEOPLE", HAVE NO SAY ANYMORE.
WE HAVE AN UNREGULATED, INTOLERANT, SOCIALLY RESTRICTED SOCIETY.
SOON TO BE WITH ONLY A RICH AND POOR CLASS OF PEOPLE.
RULED BY THE SUB-CULTURED.

+14 # Dave W. 2011-05-27 10:23

In reality this country hasn't "won" a war since 1945. We have now, officially, lost another one. Iraqis are marching in the streets demanding we leave. Afghans may NEVER be removed from the influence of tribalism and the pernicious rule of the Taliban. Al-Quieda is multi-national network that WON'T be stamped out at the point of a gun. And we have both economically and morally done EXACTLY what Bin Laden hoped we'd do. Uncle Sam is now a terrorist doppelganger. Congratulations America. Now where did I put those Predator Drones?

+3 # Activista 2011-05-28 07:56

Obama just went to Europe to escalate another lost CIA/MOSSAD civilian war against Libya (bombing civilians in Tripoli to change regime).

Obama wants billion from AIPAC for another term selection, his EU trip number one agenda is to block Palestinian independence vote.

+2 # Steve D 2011-05-27 11:03

"We are a more intolerant, more repressive and socially restrictive society than we ever had been before bin Laden"? Sorry, but unless you mean "in the years directly before bin Laden" that's nonsense. Otherwise, you're saying the US today is MORE intolerant, repressive and socially restrictive than it was 200 years ago, when it was still legal to own slaves.

+10 # BEN S. 2011-05-27 11:21

While I would like to say this is completely true, I have a difficult time doing so... It seems to me that this is only true if you are white and middle class... For a long time, starting well before Bin Laden, people of color and lower SES, have had their civil rights trampled on, been fought against in a military style, surveilled constantly, etc... I guess what I'm getting at, is that I just wish people would check their privilege when writing or reading these articles, because we need to realize much of this has been a problem for a long time, but is just now being felt by the white middle class...

+8 # True Progressive 2011-05-27 15:53

Ben S.: Very good point. I always stress, when I recount on the economic security of my 1950's childhood, that my "Leave It To Beaver" home life was possible because I was a white child growing up in a white suburb, to two white parents, one of whom had an MBA and a good paying automotive job. I've never doubted that things would have looked and been very different if I and my family had been black.

+11 # Pikewich 2011-05-27 13:14

Instead of capturing Bin Laden and bringing him to trial, he was executed.

Tried and Judged in the Media, Executed by Assassins.

Where did we leave off being a country based on the "Rule of Law"?

Who is next?

+14 # Scott 2011-05-27 13:37

I agree with the comments about our society being messed up before bin Laden, but Marc is correct that 9/11 provided the cover to speed up the erosion of civil liberties that were earned. It is true that they were not always there, but some progress was being made.

9/11 allowed the conservatives to turn back the clock.

+8 # Activista 2011-05-27 17:12

Sad thing is that Obama/congress are now part of the new order - NEOCONS and wars.
Money controls everything.

+3 # logged out 2011-05-27 23:05

if "The attacks of September 11th, 2001, came out of a clear blue sky," then we were not watching the weather. there were plenty of storm warnings, we just chose to pay them no mind. our policy in the ME has been causing clouds to gather for decades and continues along the same path

+4 # Activista 2011-05-28 08:03

Arab spring is much MORE than getting rid of two pro USraeli dictators - as US media propaganda screams.
Positive is unification of Palestine and support of Egyptian people for Palestine. Unarmed demonstrators are being killed on Israeli borders - wire fence.

+4 # Activista 2011-05-28 09:38

Good news - Egypt opened borders to Gaza. We should celebrate this liberation of the Israeli concentration camp Gaza -
VIVA ARAB SPRING

+2 # Dona Quixote 2011-05-28 14:34

OBL and 911 did not 'come out of the blue'-there were plenty of warnings from different foreign sources. Of course, as long as the official story is in place-like how those planes and all that kerosene could magically melt those massive steel box girders in such a symetrical way as to cause both towers to fall at free fall speed, we will never see any daylight in our situation. We might as well blame it on Voldemort and Fynd Fyre as OBL, whose death, without any opportunity to testify, should remind us of the death of LHO (Lee Harvey Oswald) whose spectacular feat with a Mannlicher Carcano rifle could never be questioned or duplicated.

+1 # Dave W. 2011-05-28 17:21

Dona Quixote, Very good post! It's nice to know a few us have critical thinking skills. 9/11 was an "inside job." The evidence is overwhelming. The problem: the media has abandoned the concept. Obama just wants to "look forward." Those of us who do believe are now labeled "conspiracy nuts." I really wonder if America could handle the truth should it be proved. The ramifications would be massive. But if there's any validity to the saying "the truth will set you free" it most certainly needs to be brought out into the open.

+2 # bobby t. 2011-05-29 09:11

er, writers, did you really read what marc said?
he said the government can legally tap your phone without a warrant! they can also read your email without a warrant. what about this 1984 world don't you understand? this is nazi germany or russia under stalin. would you want to live under those guys rules?
this is the land of liberty? come on, understand where we are now. this is now. what happened to our rights to privacy and free speech? there has been a huge change right here in our beloved country. please, wake up.

+4 # KeLeMi 2011-05-29 10:16

Hey, Bush and Obama both say that invading Iraq was legal. Both support the Patriot Act and warrantless surveillance. But then, everything that Hitler did was legal.

What gets me is that the people who support these things claim to oppose big government and they are letting it become a monster.

+1 # RICHARDKANEpa 2011-05-30 19:37

Something is weird. Massive killings supposedly against international law but not the killing of one person. After bin Laden was stopped the drone war continued without saying, “No”, there is a better way than risking the lives of innocent women and children. I wished the wonderful improvements went all the way and bin Laden had lived. But ignoring improvements in policy can only make them worse. I wish thoughtfully people would help me stop the blame game.

Internet sites of all stripes keep drifting toward a very narrow perspective making it difficult to communicate thoughtful points in different direction.

With in the future only Internet TV pretuned to where the viewer sets the peramiters, and blog sites also pre-picked, I wonder in the future if there will be a massive earthquake with few not in the immediate area even knowing.

+2 # BFCOOLING 2011-05-31 15:36

Its all really quite simple - Americans have tasted blood and we like it. America became the Sparta of the 21st century, militarized, securitized, isolationist/imperialist, arrogant and unwilling to return to First Principles. National Security is about (vested public officials, both elected and appointed, Jobs, imprinting America by dictate and FEARmongering by media, self-serving bureaucrats and the Right Wing paranoids. We won't see normality in our lifetimes - maybe never.

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