COLUMBUS _ We were lying down, reading, ready for lights out when the phone rang late Sunday night. I looked at the caller I.D. before answering, "You're too old to be up at this hour."
"Obama's on TV, says we just killed Osama," Uncle Chet said.
"What?"
"Remember Osama?"
"Reagan's `freedom fighter?"'
"That's the one," he said. "He's dead."
"I thought he died years ago."
"So did I, but he was hanging out in Pakistan. Obama said he sent in a SWAT team today."
"Wow. I wonder if it's real ... ?" I mused aloud.
"Don't turn birther on me. Of course it's real; they've got the body," Uncle Chet said.
"What are they going to do with that?"
"Throw it in the ocean," he said.
Hon sat up in bed. "What's going on?" She put down her book on the Kennedys.
"Not much," I said aside. "Except we've killed Osama and we're going to throw his body in the ocean."
"Don't you mean Gadhafi?" she said.
"Almost got him, too," said the voice on the phone."He'll never last 10 years, like Osama. Too soft from palace life."
"Well, it looks like we've finally won the war on terror," I said.
"We lost that war years ago," Uncle Chet said. "When Osama hit us in 2001, we were awash in cash, fresh from eight years of Clinton, still talking about how to divvy up the `peace dividend."'
"I remember," I said.
"So, Osama sent over 19 Saudis and Egyptians, armed them with razor blades and airplane tickets and did a couple of trillion dollars worth of damage. Ten years later, we're fighting three Mideast wars and the Republicans are trying to do away Social Security and Medicare, saying we can't afford the American way of life anymore ... Does that sound like a victory?"
"I can't hear any more; I'll never get to sleep," I said.
"Osama took away our freedoms, turned the world ugly for everyone, uglier for Muslim Americans, made them into suspects, sympathizers. People were arrested, beaten, and the rule of law, the Constitution, took a beating under the so-called `Patriot Act.'
"They always think of a good, confusing name," I said.
"Osama might have spent half a million, and in return, I bet he cost us $3 trillion."
"The towers were big, but not worth trillions," I said.
"The towers, the Pentagon, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq," Uncle Chet said. "Add it up and you'll be in the trillions, and we haven't seen the last dollar yet. As a matter of fact, I was wondering how the world will react to Osama's death. Will it help us, or cost us more, over the long haul?"
"Don't know, but it's almost midnight," I noted.
"It's going to stir the pot in Pakistan, and that pot's already boiling," Uncle Chet said.
"True."
"But it should help Obama get out of Afghanistan," he said. "On his watch, we got rid of the 9/11 devil, so now it's time to go home."
"Amen."
"And it's going to help him politically. After eight years of Bush's floundering, it took a Dem. to do it, avenge 3,000 deaths. I can see a button that says, `It took a Dem. to do it,' and they won't even have to say what."
"Call me in the morning and we'll talk," I said.
"It's going to make Obama impossible to beat in 2012," he continued. "It might lead to a Democratic takeover in the House, too, as everyone rides the coattails of a commander-in-chief who hunted down and exterminated the mass murderer."
"Still got 18 months to go," I said.
"But you know what really gets me," he said. "No trial by jury, no chance to set the record straight, no perspective, no lessons learned. Osama was armed and trained by the CIA in the 1980s _ Reagan's freedom fighter _ because he was a bulwark against the Soviets, the enemy of our enemy. As we retire him on May Day 2011, after 10 years of strife, what are we doing in Libya?"
"Good night," I said.
"Training another generation of freedom fighters, enemies of our enemy," he said.
"Good night."'
"Bombing again, and praying it won't come back to bite us."
Cooperstown bureau Reporter Tom Grace is traveling with his Uncle Chet, who he says is imaginary. Grace's column appears every other week. For more of his columns, visit www.thedailystar.com/tomgrace.
Columns
Related Photos
-
Tom Grace
Discussion
Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.
Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.
Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.
For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.
Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.
RULES OF CONDUCT:
We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:
1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.
WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:
1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:
1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.
WE WELCOME:
1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.
MONITORING:
We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time (including weekends) will be sporadic.
Wounds left by Osama still healing
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
- Cary Brunswick
-
-
Some wisdom is best passed down through books
I was visiting a friend out-of-town recently and the subject of providing a "reading list" to young people came up in conversation. He said years ago he had asked a respected acquaintance in Oneonta to compile such a list for his teenage daughter, to help her be better prepared for life, culture, education, politics and people.
Continued ... - Let pragmatism, not politics, determine birth control debate
- As Center Street Elementary goes, so goes Center City
- U.S. intervention in Syria's uprising would be a gamble
- Santorum, Obama both got it wrong on Honduras
-
- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
-
-
If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
In Otsego County’s local elections last fall, a number of candidates — most of them on the independent Sustainable Otsego line — ran on an anti-fracking, pro-sustainability platform. They recognized that our current way of life — dependent on increasingly scarce, costly and polluting fossil fuels — cannot continue.
Continued ... - Time to get off the bus and on the computer
- Cuomo's Machiavellian maneuvers are a danger
- Home rule laws aren't a radical idea
- Sustainable shouldn't be a dirty word
-
If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
- Lisa Miller
-
-
Being a parent is a constant learning process
I am sitting cross-legged on the floor in the dressing room, waiting for Allie's dance number to be called. The cave girl costume has been donned, the jazz shoes double-tied, the hair pulled back, the requisite dab of lipstick applied.
Continued ... - Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
- Untethered from the cable box
-
Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Mark Simonson
-
-
Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
Oneonta became a settlement and has been a place to do one's "trading," whether it was the 18th century, or 2012, because of the five valleys that converge here. Only the places of doing the "trading" have changed a bit over the last 100 years, and Oneonta remains a place that attracts visitors and has always been a decent place to live and work.
Continued ...
100 Years Ago - Recalling the Hindenburg, John D. Rockefeller in May 1937
- Oneonta residents had diversions aplenty in the spring of 1952
- Damaschke essential to ensuring Oneonta baseball in 1927
- Area tunes to WONT in November 1972
-
Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
- Rick Brockway
-
-
Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
OUTDOORS COLUMN BY RICK BROCKWAY ... Last week, my friend George and I returned to the Gunks for another rock-climbing adventure. After last week's column, I asked about the rattlesnakes and was told not to worry. Rattlers are usually quite timid and will avoid people as much as possible. It's the copperheads that'll give you trouble. They're aggressive and will stand their ground to defend it. Oh great!!
- Rattlesnakes may be closer than you think, so pay attention
- Spring is here, so fishing should pick up soon
- Sneaky fox may be the next animal looking to horse around
- Pass down the rush of turkey hunting to your kids this weekend
-
Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
- Sam Pollak
-
-
I'm happy with our kids to a certain degree
It was several years ago, and I was in the kitchen, telling my eldest daughter and my then-teenaged son about the person who was taking over as publisher at The Daily Star.
Continued ... - I get by with a little help from my 'friends'
- It’s not easy for a politics junkie to get off the stuff
- The Encyclopaedia Britannica in print, unmourned by me
- Angelo Dundee was always a good man to have in your corner
-
- William Masters
-
-
Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
Richard Lugar, after six terms as a Republican senator -- known for his middle of the road rationality and his foreign policy finesse -- has been ousted by a Tea Party extremist backed by outside right-wing funding.
-
War not worth gambling with lives of soldiers
Are you not tired of our war in Afghanistan? It had a point, once, after 9/11. Bush couldn't distinguish his myopic personal agendas from the nation's needs and let Osama escape, dropping the ball entirely, causing many deaths.
-
Titanic was a microcosm of U.S. economic disparity
Haunting reminders of the Titanic tragedy have wafted over us with the centenary of its sinking. The maiden voyage of an impressive, state of the art vessel, was a little like that of the Challenger space shuttle, at the cutting edge of developing technology. But the shuttle carried our pride in science and space exploration, not hundreds and hundreds of people.
-
William Masters: Nation stands divided between 'us' and 'them'
In February, Trayvon Martin was shot dead as "suspicious" by a volunteer neighborhood watch man. The case has aroused community reaction in Sanford, Fla., and is still echoing across the country.
-
A quarterback can't win the game alone
What is the relationship between democracy and wealth? Democracy is a political system, while wealth relates to economics. We have equal political rights, but we don't all have money. Extreme differences destroy the continuity of community solidarity.
-
Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
