(Illustration by Daniel Fishel / For The Times)
Posted on 05/14/2011 7:41:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The millennials' reaction to Osama bin Laden's death is characterized by a generational narcissism and a generational need to be part of history, especially when it's easy... students at Yale University... headed to the quad to celebrate. They chanted "U-S-A!" and "Yes we did!"; they waved American flags, blasted vuvuzelas, took pictures with their arms raised or wrapped around one another. They bellowed "The Star-Spangled Banner," along with stadium standbys like "We Are the Champions" and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye." A couple of students circled the crowd on a moped. If you hadn't known better, you would have thought the U.S had just won the World Cup.
It wasn't too long before the media certified scenes like this as an important trend, and journalists started analyzing what the scenes said about Young People Everywhere. "For 9/11 generation," USA Today claimed in a front-page headline, "a turning point."
That generation is often called the millennial generation, which includes anyone born between 1980 and 2000 -- and in which I, born in 1985, am a grumpy old man. I know I'm grumpy because my generation's response to Bin Laden's death troubles me -- for its opportunism, for its self-centeredness and, most of all, for its turning the death of a person, however despicable, into the reason for a very public celebration.
In that USA Today article, and in ones like it in this newspaper, the New York Times and other outlets, a narrative has quickly congealed. Because of their youth, the thinking goes, millennials experienced 9/11 in a unique and uniquely transformative way. After the tragedy, they became more serious and civic-minded. But they also became more anxious and self-aware. More than anything, millennials couldn't shake the specter of Osama bin Laden.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
(Illustration by Daniel Fishel / For The Times)
George W. Bush says he was “not overjoyed” when President Barack Obama told him Osama bin Laden was dead because the campaign to track down the al-Qaida leader was done not “out of hatred, but to exact judgment.”
Many of these morons really think that our struggle against islamic extremism is now concluded.
I think the flag waving groups in front of the White House that night were a set-up; plants if you were, for Obama. Very contrived. My children are part of the so-called millennial generation and they wouldn’t have done something like that.
Ah, the illustration explains that we who celebrated justice for the murdered are Neanderthals. How sophisticated of the Times!
Arranged (via sm) Obama rally in D.C. that night.
FIRST- These were the kids that SAW September 11th happen before their eyes in 8th grade!
SECOND- This is the Generation that fought In FALLUJA AND TORA BORA!!!!! I know service members who have fought, sniped a few people, and blew up a couple of depots.
THIRD-These were the people who were not out in the street yelling, they most likely reflected on all they have fought and suffered for. The facts are, the ones out in the street are YOUR type of people Mr.(Ms.) Fehrman, the ones who are ignorant and just wanted a chance to yell and scream for attention
I am YOUNGER than you, I have contributed more to this society than your stupid little Inane articles, tell me your 25, have YOU gotten two Bachelors degrees? Studied at the University of Stuttgart? Know 3 Languages? Gotten Married and Fathered 4 Children? Served in the United States Air Force? HMMMMMM?
NO! You are the useless member of Generation Y who makes Gen Yers ashamed!
I’m guessing that was directed at the author of the screed?
You know, the guy that sawed off Daniel Pearl's head.
What Administration caught KSM? Here's a hint, the same one that caught Saddam Hussein, the man directly responsible for the murder of nearly a half million people.
Last question, how is it that the “Cowboy” Bush (that they hated) caught these two guys (who were armed) while their idol Obama is responsible for ordering the assassination of an unarmed half naked Osama Bin Laden?
Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda are not the enemy. The exuberance of this celebration at Yale examples the success of Obama’s efforts to transform the death of bin Laden into political theater by mirroring John McCain’s campaign determination to “get bin Laden”. However, a real enemy is Wahhabi Jihadism and not the latest mercurial, sociopath, prophet and organization emerging from the Wahhabi/Salafi and like heresies.
The Wahhabi/Salafi pattern not only justifies oligarchy, but also empowers stateless terrorism. This heresy considers Jews, Christians, Sunnis, Shi’as and secularists sub-human, legitimate objects for slaughter. These terrorists suborn traditional Muslim loyalties valuing family, tribe and country, and substitute limitless murder and destruction.
Terrorist converts besides primitives include university graduates accommodating fanaticism within academic excellence in sciences and engineering. Hence, frightening capabilities emerge from fifty-year-old worldwide technologies and stockpiles for weapons such as Davy Crockett missiles firing from jeeps 51-pound nuclear 0.02-kiloton warheads, and Astor torpedoes carrying Hiroshima size warheads.
Chemical and biological agents can now emanate from dual-use facilities, and cottage industries. The biological pathogens, which decimated Europe, still reside one step away in our food chain, ready for exploitation. Insecticides and pesticides provide the precursors for chemical weapons, just as cough syrup does for methamphetamines. The entire chemical or biological weapons program of the Soviet Union can now be carried within a Ford Club Van.
Open societies provide excellent delivery means for chemical and biological agents where 2,000 to 20,000 people work and travel within closed HVAC systems. The complex fresh water and food distribution systems in first world countries invite lethal chemical and biological intrusions. Human ingenuity, available resources, and receptive national environments present terrorists opportunities greater than any threat or invasion our country previously faced.
Bin Laden’s death or crippling of al-Qaeda hardly constitutes victory when we are engaged in first campaigns of a long war. Victory requires seeking out and supporting the anonymous, selfless individuals and constituencies willing to endanger their lives and those of their families to establish durable economic models and representative governments. Such African, Oriental and Asian governments would bring Global War on Terror victory by frustrating plans, breaking alliances and fracturing terrorist organizations into ever less effective units. Without cities, countries or armies they would live out unnaturally shortened lives as pariahs.
Unfortunately, Barack Obama does not display leadership of a dependable ally. His international actions have elevated Islamic despots and depreciated this country. He displayed submissiveness in offering conciliatory gestures to Sudanese leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir, sending John Kerry to meet Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, bowing to King Abdullah, and in initiating Iranian talks without preconditions. He displayed diplomatic feebleness through lack of support for the Iranian demonstrations after a rigged election.
His general ridicule of U.S. for past actions disturb Arab states where people regard speaking ill of one’s own tribe to strangers a moral lapse. Specifically, Ahmadinejad’s latest announcement about nuclear fuel enrichment shows his disregard for Obama’s open negotiations. These events remind people desiring responsive, stable governments that the U.S. too often discovers foreign policies enabling both abandonment and self-congratulatory righteousness.
Not only has the mission not been accomplished, but now he has created a foreign policy environment accepting of traditional authoritarian Islamic rule. These traditional governments do not follow a Western organization chart, but follow the principle of interlocking spheres of influence. They have no problem accepting religious or secular terrorist organizations within the cabal of ruling elites in order to retain power.
Worth repeating early and often.
It’s just such crappy, silly journalism.
Where, for instance, is the “quad” supposed to be? It’s where all of this happened, right? So it’s an important place?
The word sounds good and snooty, except there is not one place on Yale’s campus called, or referred to as, “the quad.”
That is interesting.
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