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Rough chronology of events from a very US-centered perspective:
(The 2000 election coup is now older than 10 years; the Bush tax cuts with their enormous impact on economy and the budget, and their creation of a far greater inequality in society, are about 10 years old.)
September 11th, anthrax, and the transformation of US government and society into a quasi-psychotic "homeland" in the aftermath.
The resulting global terror war and the invasion of Afghanistan.
Enron and the other corporate crashes that revealed the true, routine nature of plunder capitalism, with little consequence (instead they found a new bubble to inflate).
The failed US-backed coup in Venezuela and the Argentinean uprising against the IMF, key moments in the South American spring along with the election of Lula in Brazil.
The invasion of Iraq, then the insurgency and the decision to foment a sectarian massacre as the means of "winning."
The US-engineered coup to oust Aristide.
The "reelection" of the Bush regime.
The 2004 tsunami.
Recent IEA acknowledgement that extraction of the easy oil reserves peaked already in 2005 (and no one noticed).
Katrina and the aftermath in New Orleans.
The 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
The crash of the capitalist system in 2007-2009, the 2008 banksters' coup.
The election of Obama, the new administration's decision not to reverse the Bush "achievements," the right wing reaction (and absence of the left from protest), the escalation in Afghanistan.
The various uprisings against the neoliberal system since 2009, and sure to continue. The Iceland referendums against the IMF.
The Haiti earthquake.
The BP oil disaster in the Gulf (itself about equivalent to the Niger Delta spills). This should have been considered as big as Pearl Harbor as a reason to mobilize national resources to confront the threat (in this case, of the way we extract and consume energy).
The big Wikileaks releases starting last year.
The Arab spring and the Egyptian revolution.
The Japanese earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima disaster. Another "Pearl Harbor" level event that should have mobilized an immediate world mobilization to begin a complete conversion in the way energy is made and used over the next 20 to 30 years.
The NATO intervention in Libya.
I didn't know where to fit in the rise of the BRICS and SCO since these aren't as easy to pin to specific discrete events.
EDIT: And talk about my American provincialism! What about the Congo war, the most costly of all? South Sudan and Darfur, all the African crises, the opening of the Three Rivers Dam?
In a hundred years, it's very likely all they'll be talking about will be our utter blindness to the ecological disasters, deforestation, poisoning the ocean, global warming; the failure of the US-led system to rein in warfare and predatory capitalism; and presumably the end of the US empire and the rise of other nations such as China. Also, the technological and media changes, above all the Internet. Do you really think a Space Shuttle crash means anything to a historian, compared to that?
Compared to the big history, the announced killing of OBL (even if it all happened as described) is in the same league of other feel-good propaganda operations like the Jessica Lynch "rescue," the phony Saddam statue toppling or the fake finding of Saddam in the "spider hole." In three months, most of you will barely remember it.
If it were actually a blow against "terrorism" however defined it would mean something, but it's just the cathartic destruction of a hated symbol, with very little effect on anything else that will happen.
Just to go with the same set of 24-48 hours, the Canadian election is likely to turn out to be several hundred times more significant.
In fact, the OBL event is only about 10 or 20 times more important as a historic event than the UK royal wedding. Or a Superbowl, which is kind of what it feels like.
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