Osama Bin Laden is found in a Pakistan mansion and killed as Americans at home spend an hour sweating out a “national security” announcement while watching “Celebrity Apprentice” or preparing for bed.
For the old, anxiety arises with the memory of another Sunday night when President Kennedy interrupted TV schedules to reveal missiles in Cuba and that the U.S. would block all shipments to the Caribbean island.
In the age of Facebook and Twitter, a death notice takes on all the urgency of a nuclear confrontation, while no one questions its timing or treatment.
Of course, bin Laden’s death is an important symbolic event in the War on Terror, but does it merit a weekend late-night presidential announcement that brings out cheering crowds at the White House and elsewhere? Would Americans have suffered by learning the news officially this morning?
That said, there is a jarring contrast between Osama’s end in a luxury compound and the capture of Saddam Hussein “like a rat in a hole” over seven years ago.
The copyrighted cartoon by Martin Sutovec, Slovakia, is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.