Geronimo should be honoured, not associated with bin Laden

The vile creature bin Laden is dead, conspiracy theorists notwithstanding.

But what a sad reflection on the mentality of the US imperialists that he was code-named after a great indigenous patriot and warrior, Geronimo.

Are the grown men and women who comprise the inner sanctum of US ruling circles really nothing more than outgrown children, still playing “cowboys and Indians” in the backyard?

To code-name bi Laden “Geronimo” is to revel in the expansionist war crimes and land seizures of settler America, and is an insult to every living US indigenous person.

Geronimo (June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a prominent American First Nations leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought for several decades against the expansion of Mexico and the United States into Apache tribal lands.

After an attack by a company of Mexican soldiers killed many members of his family in 1858, Geronimo joined revenge attacks on the Mexicans and later against the United States. He became known for bravery and daring feats and was revered by the Apaches as a warrior with spiritual powers.

Lisa Balk King, of Indian Country Today Media Network, wrote that the nickname sends "a disturbing message that equates an iconic symbol of Native American pride with the most hated evildoer since Adolf Hitler."

“Potentially the most disturbing fact is what this says to American Indian children. It equates being Native American with being hated, an enemy to the world, and someone to be hunted down and killed, and re-casts one of their heroes into a villainous role,” she said.

Unlike bin Laden, who was summarily executed upon capture, Geronimo was kept alive as a prisoner of war and died in captivity after being thrown from his horse in 1909.

So, the lone superpower that cooperated with anti-fascist forces to raise the standard of international justice to new heights with the Nuremburg War Trials has now descended to the depths of vigilante assassination.

This is of no surprise to anti-imperialists, but is causing concern to many democratic-minded and justice-loving persons.

All that the US ruling class can do is to smother itself in the jubilant lumpen exreta of “USA! USA!”, “Got what he deserved - the people in the Twin Towers weren’t armed either!” and so on.

Lies and misinformation typical of imperialist spin are slowly dissolving.

Yesterday, a US reporter was telling readers of our local Murdoch rag that “Bin Laden was located in an upstairs room using a woman, believed to be one of his wives, as a shield as he fired at the soldiers.”

This justified his killing and discredited him as a coward.

However, Pakistani sources are now saying there was no fire fight anywhere in the compound. "Not a single bullet was fired from the compound at the US forces and their choppers,” said the source.

And persistent questioning of the sort rarely seen these days by the kept reporters of the White House elicited a reluctant admission from the US that bin Laden was unarmed.

Now bin Laden’s 12 year old daughter, who was present when he was killed, has claimed that her father was first captured and then shot, in front of her and other members of the family.

His wife had not been used as a shield, but had rushed at the US soldiers who had shot and wounded her.

So, one pack of bastards has eliminated another bastard - the creature they created in their fight with the Soviet social-imperialists for control of Afghanistan.

No wonder they wanted him dead. What stories he might have told!

And in the process, the children of indigenous USA are defeated all over again in the continuing Apache Wars.