After witnessing commencement at Dickinson College this afternoon it was announced that a Dickinson Alum had received a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue a Masters in Egypt this coming year. I'm not exactly sure how to interpret the relation between this and in February with the revolution that occurred. But I think that it is pretty amazing that a fellow Dickinsonian, not even one year after the College had to pull their two students from Cairo will be studying there in the fall.
Just felt the need to get that down and out there, maybe after this all sinks in I will re-post. Also will post once I am able to digest Obama's speech from last week in connection to the upcoming APAIC conference and its meaning etc...
Feel free to help me draw meaning.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Osama's Death
May 1st, the main face of terrorism has been killed. Osama bin Laden is dead. After a 10 year search for him through Afghanistan and Pakistan a US Navy Seal team caught up with him and it ended in a firefight inside his security compound located about 30 miles outside the capital city of Islamabad, Pakistan.
The reality of the situation is that although he is dead, it really doesn't change much in regards to the fact that terrorism is not over. In fact in the aftermath one can expect a rash of attacks in response to the death. The reason for this is that al-Qaeda is a transnational organization, and while bin Laden was the leader, he was more of a figurehead. There are various offshoot terrorist organizations and cells that operated independently of direction from bin Laden. The only real impact of Osama's death is that his image and weight can no longer used for propaganda against the US, Israel, and other western countries.
For example the NBA has increased security at their playoffs games, by adding metal detectors to games. Whether or not there is a legitimate threat of al-Qaeda attacking the Bulls-Hawks game, it is still interesting to notice the varying responses. Another response in the sports world was the outbreak of USA USA USA at the Phillies Met's game, which had gone into the 14th inning. Than probably the most covered response by the media was over the outbreak of demonstrations/celebrations/gatherings/riots (whatever you want to characterize them as) at college campuses across the country.
The analytical explanation that I can give for the outbreaks across college campuses nationally is the a sense of catharsis. This is not to say that I necessarily approve of the actions taken by some of the students at least on Dickinson's campus but it is important to put it into context. First of all what occurred at Dickinson was not a riot, there were many campuses across the country that truly had to deal with student riots. I believe it can best described as a catharsis, because members of my generation were exposed to the images of the towers falling and people jumping out of the building rather than waiting for them to fall. Those are images that are ingrained into my mind and that I can vividly recall. The person responsible for those attacks was killed by a military action that many people have been waiting for for 10 years. With that it is also important to point out that bin Laden killed thousands of people who were not Americans. And now that he has been brought to justice it is a weight off their shoulders.
The reality of the situation is that although he is dead, it really doesn't change much in regards to the fact that terrorism is not over. In fact in the aftermath one can expect a rash of attacks in response to the death. The reason for this is that al-Qaeda is a transnational organization, and while bin Laden was the leader, he was more of a figurehead. There are various offshoot terrorist organizations and cells that operated independently of direction from bin Laden. The only real impact of Osama's death is that his image and weight can no longer used for propaganda against the US, Israel, and other western countries.
For example the NBA has increased security at their playoffs games, by adding metal detectors to games. Whether or not there is a legitimate threat of al-Qaeda attacking the Bulls-Hawks game, it is still interesting to notice the varying responses. Another response in the sports world was the outbreak of USA USA USA at the Phillies Met's game, which had gone into the 14th inning. Than probably the most covered response by the media was over the outbreak of demonstrations/celebrations/gatherings/riots (whatever you want to characterize them as) at college campuses across the country.
The analytical explanation that I can give for the outbreaks across college campuses nationally is the a sense of catharsis. This is not to say that I necessarily approve of the actions taken by some of the students at least on Dickinson's campus but it is important to put it into context. First of all what occurred at Dickinson was not a riot, there were many campuses across the country that truly had to deal with student riots. I believe it can best described as a catharsis, because members of my generation were exposed to the images of the towers falling and people jumping out of the building rather than waiting for them to fall. Those are images that are ingrained into my mind and that I can vividly recall. The person responsible for those attacks was killed by a military action that many people have been waiting for for 10 years. With that it is also important to point out that bin Laden killed thousands of people who were not Americans. And now that he has been brought to justice it is a weight off their shoulders.
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