Geronimo EKIA

Okay so first, I'm sorry for not updating for months.  In short: I had a good first semester; went on a month-long trip around Australia with my Dad over the summer; started an internship with a human rights NGO, Diplomacy Training Program, which is located on my uni's campus; went to Melbourne for a week and hung out with Cesar; been pretty good so far in the second semester; and recently starting reffing soccer games.

Secondly, while I first treated this as a sort of travel blog, though rarely updated (sorry!), the main reason I felt an urge to blog again was to start posting my opinions on international issues.  My curiosity/excitement/bewilderment about the recent death of Osama bin Laden has made me feel even more compelled to state my opinions and raise some questions.  Also this new direction to the blog's mandate will help me illustrate my thoughts on issues.

To begin, I was about to eat lunch on Monday when I got a 'push' update on my iphone from the Huffington Post that the President would be having a press conference soon.  I thought this was a little weird considering it was around 930pm ET but I went ahead and got food.  As I was eating Channel 7 cut to CNN coverage of a developing situation, where Wolf Blitzer appeared before me along with the headline, "Osama bin Laden is Dead".  

To say the least, I was a little shocked - maybe the right word is 'flabbergasted'.  I mean, we had been looking for the prick for nearly a couple decades now.  I was not aware of any publicly-stated security focus on him for a long time.  For the most part, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups had become the focus of most discussions on terrorism.  While waiting for the President to speak from the East Room of the Whitehouse, I grabbed my laptop and updated my status using a Huffington Post article: "wow, world is at a standstill waiting for the President to make probably the biggest announcement of his presidency".


I actually imagine everybody was scrambling to get to a tv, but they had plenty of time because the President started his speech about 45 minutes late (after the scheduled time).  Twitter was going nuts with updates.  I was trying to find more details on news articles with the relevant headlines, but they wouldn't load, because I suspect too many people were trying to access them, overwhelming the servers. 

Then I listened intently to President Obama announce that bin Laden had been killed in a US special operation in Pakistani town of Abbottabad.  The President said he died in a firefight with US Navy SEALs, the best of the best.  No Americans were killed, although we lost a helicopter, which was icing on the cake!  Bin Laden was killed in a $1 million-dollar mansion.  He said that 'justice has been done' for all of those who perished on 9/11 and their families.  He delivered a great speech, especially the ending: "Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth or power, but because of who we are: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all".

What got me most, was the crowd amassing outside of the Whitehouse cheering and singing the star spangled banner.  Most people in the crowd were young people, most likely from Gerogetown and GW campuses.  These kids were out celebrating the bin Laden's death in spite of the fact that they were meant to be studying for their final exams in the coming week.  Then I saw a video posted of fans yelling USA at a Phillies/Mets game after learning about bin Laden's death.  I think this shows how much we needed this after nearly 10 years into the War on Terror.  We never really got excited about Saddam Hussein being found and hanged, or when we pulled out of Iraq.  In a sense of closure, we were waiting for this.

Then we found out that bin Laden's body was laid to rest at sea.  At this point, I smacked my forehead, because we look like we're trying to destroy the best evidence for a murder - the body.  So this will cast doubts on whether we actually killed him.  Then I read this Guardian article which talks about the dilemma of burying the body when no country wants it.  It could also have become a shrine for followers.  Apparently burial at sea is an option under Islamic traditions, but it had to be done within 24 hours (another Islamic tradition).  So I guess it doesn't look as bad since they were trying to respect religious traditions (which fosters goodwill from Arabs and Islam).

Today, the Obama administration tweaks its story by exclaiming that bin Laden had been unarmed.  This development raises a whole lot of controversial points.  Looking through the lenses of legalism, this is quite troubling.  If bin Laden had been armed, then killing him would have been justifiable under laws and principles governing conflict.  However, if bin Laden was unarmed, he then had to present some kind of threat to the SEALs to warrant his death.  I'm sure there are several scenarios where a threat would warrant such action, but remember that the SEALs had to secure the entire compound before reaching the top floor of the mansion to find bin Laden alone in his bedroom.  You have to ask yourself what one man would be able to do without a gun against a handful of the deadliest human weapons on the planet, who also had guns.  If unarmed and presenting no threat, soldiers are obligated to capture (or set free) enemy combatants, or anyone for that matter.  So, if the SEALs had the option to capture bin Laden and chose to kill him anyway, then this was an appalling execution.  

Remember from the HuffPo article that the SEALs handcuffed people with zip ties in the compound before getting to bin Laden.  After they killed him, they gathered computers and other potentially helpful intelligence material.  Clearly, not everything happened in the heat of a firefight. They also took his body when they left the compound.  So there were both the means and ability for him to be taken alive.  Someone needs to explain to me why a team of Navy SEALs could not do a live-capture of an unarmed 54-year-old. 

Nonetheless the story is developing and more details are coming out, and the significance of bin Laden's death is yet to be measured.  We will hopefully learn more from DNA match releases, pictures of the body, and maybe a video clip from the firefight itself.  


The code name for bin Laden was Geronimo.  When the SEALs came out of the compound they said "Geronimo EKIA" which means, enemy killed in action.  An evil has been purged from the Earth.