Heads on Pikes

On June 21st, 1621, 27 Czech Protestants were led to the gallows in Prague's Old Town Square; convicted of having rebelled against Bohemian King Ferdinand II.  After their deaths, the Habsburgs had their heads impaled on pikes to adorn the sides of Charles Bridge, an old 14th century bridge decorated with statues of Roman Catholics saints which spans across the Moldau River.  The message conveyed by the Habsburg crown to the mass of Czech Protestants was clear, this was how justice would be done for committing treason against the King.

This sort of bloody threat of violence that would occur if anyone dared threaten the United States is apparently on the mind of Sarah Palin.

Yep, apparently you have to show the bullet ridden corpse of Bin Laden because you can't be 'pussy-footing around' when it comes to a 'mission' as important as the drifting morass that is Afghanistan.  Regardless, this effort to force the Obama Administration to release photos of Bin Laden's corpse has no intrinsic value.  There is nothing to be gained by showing the photos other than to glee at the already evident demise of the infamous terrorist.  Republican Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty's assertion that conspiracy theories regarding the belief that Bin Laden is actually still alive could be nipped in the bud with the release of the photos is ridiculous.  Look at the re-release by the American Government of President Obama's birth certificate.  Did it end all of the birther conspiracies? No, of course it didn't.

Which comes back to the story of the Protestant Czechs.  This isn't about the 'death deniers' as far as Sarah Palin's concerned, it's about demonstrating the greatness of America's ability to marshal overwhelming power to inflict pain and death on its enemies abroad, and finding pleasure and reward in observing the gruesome aftermath.  The Habsburgs' decision to mount the heads of the Czech rebels on Charles Bridge was not about finding pleasure in killing Protestants, for Ferdinand II and advocates of royal power it was about justice and punishment for treason against the crown.  For Sarah Palin and many other Americans who argue her case, this is a demonstration of American power.  Their conception of 'justice' in this case is more akin to self-satisfaction in instilling pain in others, similar to the distressing tendency of Americans to believe in the value of torture in interrogating detainees.  Torture has never been an effective means of exacting intelligence, and always has been a psychological means of demonstrating power over others, in particular the power to inflict pain.

For many Americans 9/11 was a wound that refused to close, partially because many did not want it to close.  It was too useful to have an electorate with the memories of pain and death inflicted on fellow Americans.  In return they wanted an 'eye for an eye' and 'justice' that ended up channeled through irrational displays of violence.  Americans for the most part celebrated news of Bin Laden's death, just as they often try as hard as they can to find reasons, any reasons, no matter how small, to rationalize the use of torture.  The instinct of Americans is driven by a sudden feeling of vulnerability because of a crack in the invulnerability of American power.  The response is predictable and Sarah Palin's demand for display of the consequences of challenging American power is the exemplar of this reaction.  The heads that adorned Charles Bridge after June of 1621 were about justice for challenging the 'divine order of the universe' Ferdinand II's supporters argued; Palin's 'heads' are about revenge and satisfaction.

Osama Bin Laden Finally Dead

Via The Guardian.  It seems that finally Osama Bin Laden has been killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan.  It's been a long time in coming, and makes a particularly good coda for a ugly era of global history.  Since September 11th, 2001 we've seen a wide expansion of American military adventurism, arguably not even related specifically to the bombing of the Twin Towers some would say.  Potentially hundreds of thousands of people have died as a result of the fallout from 9/11 in addition to the destabilization of states around the world, the erosion of civil liberties in the west as well as a significant expansion of the military-industrial complex in the west.

Despite these political developments, Americans as well as others around the world should feel contented at Bin Laden's demise.  Not necessarily at his death, but at the diminishing of his influence in the Muslim world as the Arab Awakening has created new circumstances in which Muslims can successfully resist authoritarianism in the Middle East.  No longer does it seem as if the adoption of Al-Qaeda's example is the most logical course to dismantle the military dictatorships, as revolutionary overthrow of the regimes through popularly-directed action from below has accomplished far more than Islamist-inspired bombing campaigns ever could.  Not only therefore does Bin Laden's death echo the shrinking of Al-Qaeda's influence in Middle East affairs, but provides in retrospect the clearest example of the fundamental shift in the Arab World to a new mechanism in which to public manifest their discontent and overthrow the military dictatorship.  Bin Laden died hidden and removed from the world in a compound in north-eastern Pakistan, while in the meantime Arabs around the Middle East and northern Africa have attempted and in cases succeeded in public programs of popular resistance and mobilization.

Arabs and Muslims in general shunned away from Bin Laden's example and succeeded where he and his cohorts failed miserably.  The regimes that they both loathed and sought to see removed are increasingly being laid low and threatened far more than Al-Qaeda-style terrorism ever could accomplish.  The trends before the Arab Spring indicated that the influence of Islamist terrorism was in decline.  Afterwards it most certainly is dead and buried, as the media indicates Osama Bin Laden is as well.  It is this fundamental shift in the Arab World that Americans, as well as all people around the world, should rejoice in.