With bin Laden's Killing, the Americans have Denied Germans a 'Happy Ending'
"He
was critical of Israel, the United States, capitalism and globalization - just
like us. … he also strongly opposed the war in Afghanistan and for years
demanded the withdrawal of Western forces. … Why couldn't we have integrated
Osama into society? True, he used to be a hothead, he attacked a few American
cities, okay, but Joschka Fischer once beat up a few policemen, yet later
became one of Germany’s favorite politicians. … You have denied us a good
man, you uncultured Mickey Mouse!"
Would Osama bin Laden have been a prime candidate for German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle's program to integrate Islamists into German society? We'll never know ...
More than a week has passed
and Germany is still in a profound state of shock. Osama bin Laden is dead. By
contrast, the country’s collective consciousness is hardly concerned with the 10,000
Japanese souls who died during the tsunami, perhaps because the flooding was
nature’s revenge for Fukushima. That’s what you get from that sort of thing. You
have only yourselves to blame; you should have built wind farms instead. But
the Navy SEALs are no natural
disaster; they make real the eye for an eye, and the tooth for a tooth. Besides, Osama didn’t build any
nuclear plants, which speaks in his favor.
In any case, Osama had a lot
more in common with us than the odd Japanese. He was critical of Israel, the
United States, capitalism and globalization - just like us. He openly and confidently
practiced his faith, which is what [Minister of Education and Research] Annete Schavan values
so highly about Islam. In other ways as well, Osama was the picture of the easy-going
former radical. In Germany, there was a time when we, too, were all radicals. Whether
former Nazi or former terrorist leader - we know that it’s possible for one to change.
Osama changed. But not the Americans or even the Japanese.
So one might well ask whether
things would have been different if an Anti-Conflict Team
of Berlin police officers had visited the “terrorist” (or freedom fighter to some)
in Pakistan. He would have been amenable to their reasoning and boarded
the aircraft with them. While still in international airspace, he would have agreed to
participate in the Westerwelle
reintegration program for Islamists, and upon landing in Berlin, the
political left and Green Party would have rolled out the red carpet. The Social
Democrats would have liked to participate, but wouldn’t dare after Gregor Gysi's on-camera
bluster about how a party with a Sarrazin in its ranks
could possibly be an option for an immigrant. And while the Christian
Democrats would have kept their distance from the reception area, they
would have invited the newcomer to take part in the Conference on Islam. The Free
Democrats, on the other hand, would remain neutral. It would be neither for
nor against Osama doing this or that.
Presumably, skyscraper critics
would most likely have joined the left (after Osama was rejected by the Greens
for years of failing to separate his trash and then burning it in his villa's
backyard, which the core of the Green Party could in the end never forgive). After
all, he also strongly opposed the war in Afghanistan and for years demanded the
withdrawal of Western forces. He could have occupied a seat on the Foreign Citizen
Advisory Council and have been a role model for young Muslims who play
with their I-Phones and have no prospects. In addition, he could have taught
adult education classes on video editing and rhetoric, and earned some
additional cash doing commercials for hair-color products for beards.
Why couldn't we have integrated
Osama into society? True, he used to be a hothead, he attacked a few American
cities, okay, but Joschka
Fischer once beat up a few policemen, yet later became one of Germany’s
favorite politicians. And that would have been precisely the long-range goal: Osama
bin Laden, first German foreign minister with a Muslim immigrant background.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
The Americans have cheated
us out of this happy ending. Now perhaps it will be easier to understand why America's
jubilation was greeted with such outrage here in Germany. You have denied us
a good man, you uncultured Mickey Mouse!
