Hit men

It's now three days since Osama bin dead, but the party continues full force. Newspapers, television, the internet, all are obsessed with repeating the latest story from the White House, and commenting solemnly on it as if it were written in stone.

The NYT has stepped up to promote more torture, just so that it's called by any other name. WAPO columnists are practically frothing at the mouth, their blood lust being whetted by thought of hit men in green. USA, USA!

The main import of the killing, if true, is that Obama has started his run for another term in earnest. First they tried to whack Gaddafi, but failed apart from the dead children, then on to Osama. The jockeying of Panetta to Defense, where he will continue his exalted role as placeholder, and Petraeus to the CIA where he will merge the assassination squads of the CIA and the military sends a message that the hit men's gloves are off. President Drone will run for a second term as the nation's hit man in chief.

For the past few years I've made a futile effort to chart the number and spread of movies about hit men. Their numbers are legion. There are funny hit men, romantic hit men, tragic hit men, teenage girl hit men, hit men couples, pretty soon we might expect hit men dogs.

This relentless propaganda promoting killers that kill for gain, or because their jobs are to kill (kind of the same thing) is no accident. Obama, who is too weak to run a coherent foreign policy has hit on a winning strategy. Just kill people and you are cool.