[Taken from my blog, written the day Osama Bin Laden was killed]

The “Where were you on 9/11?” question, one can only assume, is our generation’s “-when Kennedy was assassinated.” Being 9 (I think) and with no connection to the event I can remember watching the September 11th footage, not particularly moved by it, on the news on a repeated loop. I first saw it when my mum picked me up from school, she was sat in the car, watching it on a little handheld TV and crying. Ironically, I’m fairly sure I asked if someone had died.

This was, as we all now know, only the beginning. By 10 I had “Iraq”, “Afghanistan”, “Taliban”, “Jihad” and so many other words and ideas that never would have otherwise occurred to me lodged firmly in the front of my head. Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were in some bizarre way now pop-culture icons, I know that at least in my family the rolling news just kept on rolling.

Whilst it never made me happy, sad, scared, angry or anything else, the ‘War On Terror’ completely altered the society that I grew up in, the jokes and rhymes in our playground included “My name is Bin Laden/ I live in a tree/ I’ll sell you a condom/ For 99p” and many, many others. Admittedly that’s not exactly current affairs, but the fact that the name of Osama Bin Laden was even used in a childish rhyme that had no connection to him whatsoever shows the extent to which the ‘war’ had permeated our childhood lives. The ‘war’ wasn’t even an underlying theme, it was everywhere, it was on the serious TV, it was on the comedy shows, as a kid who watched a lot of TV it was a defining motif of my entire childhood.

The statue falling, the artillery strikes and the Presidential speeches as the war began made way for the much less rewarding, much longer run of IEDs, threats and suspicions. As I grew up, the ‘war’ grew up with me, and affiliated issues such as the burqa banning in France and the controversy over the Lockerbie bomber have remained contemporary issues. Having been raised in a white, middle class, conservative area I’ve been at the epicentre of the thoroughly misguided “bloody Muslims” attitude, ironically the further away from Islam a place seems to be the more ill-understanding, confused and scared people have to be; the shorthand way to attempt to capture the last decade is simply that Islam became zeitgeist.

 When Saddam Hussein was eventually found and executed I don’t remember it seeming particularly important to me, it didn’t feel like a resolution and the fact that over 4 years later the issues surrounding the Middle East are just as contemporary as ever they were is sure testament that it wasn’t one. And now Osama Bin Laden has been killed.

 It should be vastly apparent to everybody that this isn’t going to end the unrest, the conflicts or any of the issues that have come from the ‘War On Terror’. If anything, this simply goes to show how unwinnable the ‘war’ is, the two figureheads of the campaign now removed nothing feels any different. The riots in Libya and Egypt give a sense of change, but the ‘War On Terror’ that I grew up with feels the same as ever. You could argue that today is a sad day, as it shows that the situation in the Middle East is far more complex than the removal of its two figureheads.

 However, I didn’t want to write today because I was pro-war, anti-war or had any kind of political agenda; I wanted to write today because I grew up with Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden being discussed on my television in some context or another. It may sound twisted or flippant, but the death of Osama Bin Laden today feels as though a link with my childhood has been severed. I understand that for many people this is a joyous day, particularly those who feel connected to 9/11, but realistically it isn’t going to change the world; for me I’m very aware that one of the most influential global figures from my childhood is dead. I’m not sad that Osama Bin Laden is dead, but that the child who grew up watching him is. The childhood jokes, rhymes, television and word of mouth are now simply dated footnotes referring to the death of a man who will one day appear in textbooks and documentaries, as just another fact on record.

 For once, I’d like to apologise for any offence caused, this is a complex issue, sensitive to many, and this is a subjective account,

Joey Lemons.