Osama, Obama and the Stealers Wheel

I'm stuck in the middle with you,
And I'm wondering what it is I should do,
It's so hard to keep this smile from my face,
Losing control, yeah, I'm all over the place...

Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right,
Here I am stuck in the middle with you.
 
Child of the 70's that I am, this was the oddly disconcerting melody that kept coming into my brain as I tried to sort out my feelings at the news of the death of Osama bin Laden.

On the one hand, with Americans and lovers of peace all over the world, I rejoiced at the demise of this generation's most visible terrorist. I have wept, grieved, fussed and fumed over the tragedy that was 9/11 and our country's seeming inability to bring the perpetrators to justice. Osama taunted, the world listened, and we felt impotent.

That ain't good.

So the news, when it came, opened a floodgate of raw emotion that has understandably erupted in everything from wild celebration to a little terrorist-baiting of our own. Suddenly, it seems as if the US is superior once again -- right and might are on the same side for once. The skinny Arab rich boy can hide no longer. He's dead (and evidently, according to multiple Facebook postings I have seen, sharing a warm spot in hell with Adolf Hitler.)

Cue the funky chords from Stealers Wheel:

     Well I don't know why I came here tonight,
      I got the feeling that something ain't right...

 A post from a good friend of mine said it pretty well --(thank you, Janet)

I am glad justice was done but am also sad today. "As I live," says the Lord GOD, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways!" ~ Ezekiel 33:11

Adding to the oddness of the whole Osama ending is the involvement of the President of the United States -- Barack Obama. The President has been haunted by innuendo over everything from the validity of his birth as a US citizen to his supposed "secret allegiance" to the tenets of Islam. Many are quick to claim that, if Obama had been President in 2001, he never would have ordered the pursuit of the al Qaeda ringleader -- it took President Bush to do that.

I don't even know how to answer that kind of malarkey-induced reasoning. 

But I do know that there is one indisputable fact that was true at some point over the weekend -- the Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces gave the go-ahead for the elimination of the target that had eluded capture for nearly 10 years. And it was done. And the guy sitting in the big chair who had to make the call was Barack Hussein Obama. He is an American and he had the will, after all. So that is pretty much that.

How are we going to feel about the death of bin Laden in 10 years, 20 years, 100 years from now? (Well, I don't guess there will be too many of us here to feel anything in 100 years -- but you get my point.)

Right now, I'm just going to hold on to the jumble of images and emotions that are swirling through my brain and my heart. And listen to the music one more time --

Tryin' to make some since of it all,
But I can see it makes no sense at all...

Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right,
Here I am stuck in the middle with you.   (words by Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan)