Gryphem: The Witch is Dead. Now What?

In the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy’s sudden and involuntary arrival in Oz causes the death of the Wicked Witch of the East. The Munchkins celebrate her death and acclaim Dorothy… until another evil villainess shows up – the Wicked Witch of the West. Seems the Munchkins' celebration was not really justified, doesn’t it? There was still a Wicked Witch in power near Munchkin-Land. Stay tuned for more on the Wicked Witch analogy near the end of this post. Now on to the 2011 real-world parallel to those events in the Land of Oz…
- - - - -

I breathed a sigh of relief last night when I heard the announcer declare that Osama bin Laden had been killed. Skeptical at first, I was quickly convinced by the quality and specificity of the reports. For the next 45 minutes I sat and listened to reporters, then the president, tell how the world’s most notorious terrorist had met his end.

Along the way I thought about the timing of this development, which is very good. The democratic impulse which is being heard throughout the Middle East is in full swing, and the influence of Al Qaeda is on the wane. The good people who may at one time have accepted or at least tolerated the message of hate espoused by Al Qaeda largely have come to understand that he is not a messiah, not the Mahdi, not a noble liberator, but only the chief executive of an organization dedicated to spreading death, terror, and intimidation – a notorious, immoral killer-of-innocents. The death of bin Laden a few years ago might have made him a martyr, might have caused intense reactions against the free world. Today, that is less likely, and in fact, his death may actually provide a boost to pro-democracy forces of the “Arab Spring” movement.

I thought about the historical implications of the end of bin Laden. Yes, he is just one man, and the organization Al Qaeda still exists and will still demand our attention. But he was the instigator and the figurehead, the face of the monster. Decades in the future, when our grandchildren and great-grandchildren study the first decade of the 21st century, it will look different because U.S. forces did in fact wreak judgment upon the one responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001. If bin Laden had never been found, the history books might have portrayed the excursions into Afghanistan and Iraq as misguided “adventurism,” as a frustrated lashing-out at a target of convenience. Regardless of whatever good results might have come out of these efforts, they likely would have been seen as a failure. Now that bin Laden has been disposed and sent to meet the god in whose name he killed, now that the determination of two administrations has been realized, now that American forces have slain the one who attacked us and killed thousands of our people… Now the historical perspective will be that our efforts have been successful. Now our national determination to avenge the innocent will be seen as heroic, dogged determination.

My personal ethics prevent me from celebrating the death of a fellow human being, however much evil that one might have done. The man Osama should have lived his life for a different reason, should have rejected hatred as a guiding force for his life. His life and death are a tragedy. Even so, Osama bin Laden made his choices. He harmed and killed others deliberately, continually, remorselessly and with joy. His sadism and convoluted ethos of hate brought war and death and loss to the peoples of the world, his own as well as others he never met. His death marks the end of a terrible force for evil in our world. So, while I do not find joy in the tragic end of the man, I do find relief in the end of the most vile force for hatred and death.

The death of bin Laden offers a tiny little glimmer of hope. In the days, weeks, perhaps months following this event, we may have the opportunity to reorient ourselves away from the mindset of hatred, mistrust, fear and division that have plagued us for two decades, and toward a mindset of cooperation and cautious optimism. In the Middle East, the forces of liberty may continue to spread freedom as the oppressors of Al Qaeda retreat. In Europe the nations who have been re-learning war in Afghanistan may reorient themselves toward the peace and stability they have enjoyed for most of the past half-century. The reasonable people of Islamic traditions who love their children more than their Imam may be free to live prosperous, happy lives rather than finding themselves pressured to support a death-cult of jihad they know in their hearts is wrong. In the United States, the radicals from the political left and right may realize for a moment that we are all Americans, that we are all in this together, that political opponents are not enemies, and we may begin a new era characterized not by hyper-partisan division, but by honest, respectful debate and cooperation.

I am no blind idealist. I recognize that the odds are against my dream of a reorientation for humanity. I realize that there is a very strong possibility that we will squander this opportunity as we have before.

Yet I know that we have a real opportunity now. On the one hand, we have the path that we have been on, which appears likely to be leading us to a 21st century filled with warfare and angst. On the other hand, we have a tiny moment of real opportunity to create a new setting characterized by peace and stability rather than endless conflict and desperate positioning for advantage.

I’m not talking about Utopia. We will continue to have controversies and conflicts no matter what we do. But we can frame future conflict as incidental and issues-based, or we can relapse and frame conflict as existential, inevitable, and omnipresent.

I pray that we, the decent people of the human race, will take a deep breath and collectively sigh our relief. I dream that we may look at one another honestly for a change… that we may begin to build a new world order based on cooperation, not confrontation… with interactions characterized primarily by mutual respect, not slander… with efforts inspired by compassion, not rage… with attitudes of humility, not arrogance.

What will the world of the next decade, of the rest of this century, be like? Suddenly we find ourselves at a fork in the road, with options. The choice is ours, and the choice is upon us.
- - - - -

There is the matter of a return to Oz that I alluded to in the beginning. Is our happiness at the end of bin Laden a bit premature? Were the Munchkins too quick to celebrate, knowing as they did that the forces of Wickedness were still on the loose in Oz? Maybe. But then again, Dorothy did destroy the other Wicked Witch in the end, didn’t she?

Was the Munchkin celebration premature? Maybe.
Is ours? Maybe.
Were the Munchkins' happiness and hope justified? In the end, yes.
Are our happiness and hope justified? That, friends, remains to be seen.