Review: Christopher Hitchens addresses the life and death of Bin Laden
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 16, 2011
In this single, Christopher Hitchens offers his thoughts on the leavings and lessons of Osama Bin Laden, from the horrific 9/11 event through Bin Laden's death.I found the essay interesting yet contradictory. He says he had Bin Laden much on his mind since 9/11."I thought about the founder and leader of al-Qaeda almost every day, and either read something about him or wrote something about him almost every month, very persistently over the next decade."From this writing he takes a great deal for this essay. He says he will likely continue to think about Bin Laden. "And, now that he is dead, the requirement to reflect upon him has by no means been cancelled."Who was Osama Bin Laden in the eyes of Hitchens? "I thought then, and I think now, that Osama bin Laden was a near-flawless personification of the mentality of a real force: the force of Islamic jihad. And I also thought, and think now, that this force absolutely deserves to be called evil, and that the recent decapitation of its most notorious demagogue and organizer is to be welcomed without reserve."To point out the needless horror and bloodshed caused by religions he says, "Internal discussions captured on disc and tape show bin Laden fretfully casting about for a way to duplicate the impact of 9/11, and again to take the war to 'the far enemy,' while many of his deputies argue for lower-cost and lower-risk 'operations' against softer targets nearer at hand; Afghan schoolgirls, perhaps, or Egyptian Christians."In what I feel is the intent behind the essay, Hitchens says, "The war against superstition and the totalitarian mentality is an endless war." And indeed, it is.I found this to be a well-written essay that shows the way Hitchens felt and feels about Bin Laden and what he has wrought. He draws much on past writing, which perhaps accounts for the rambling thought pattern.But in the end, while he doesn't approve of torture, he joins those who are grateful for the death of Bin Laden. ". . . his death took on something of the feel of an exorcism," he says.-- Susanna K. Hutcheson