Osama bin Laden, who aspired to found a caliphate on the rubble of New York City and Washington, instead spent a decade running from pillar to post before he was finally shot in the head, alongside one of his sons, in a walled compound in northern Pakistan. The weak horse stumbled and has been taken to the bone yard. Ten years is not too long to wait for such a fitting end.
Congratulations to the American special forces who executed the bold and sophisticated raid (a blend of overhead surveillance and one-on-one precision shooting). Congratulations to the intelligence agents who extracted key information from turncoats, analyzed and developed those leads, and scoped out the situation beforehand. Congratulations to President Obama for making the mission a priority and for seeing it through. And congratulations to former President Bush for vowing that Osama would be taken, dead or alive.
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Perhaps the only oddity of the operation was burying the dead monster at sea. But the decision to sink bin Laden, lest his burial site become a rallying point, has precedent in the long, post–Civil War sequestration of John Wilkes Booth’s corpse.
Booth’s evil, great though it was, was not a patch on bin Laden’s. Bin Laden was a common type throughout the modern world, not just its Muslim quadrant: the obscurely aggrieved rich kid turned zealot. He murdered thousands, including coreligionists, without remorse. He spoke of God and martyrdom, but what he really pursued was a fusion of the totalitarian temptation with romanticized bits of Dark Ages bric-a-brac.
The war on al-Qaeda and its imitators is by no means over. Terrorists will strike back in order to recoup their damaged prestige. Our relations with Pakistan must be reassessed in view of the seeming culpability of elements of its intelligence and military. One hopes Obama will reassess his campaign assaults on the very interrogation techniques that helped yield this coup. The temptation to wash our hands of failed states and the pathological cultures that underlie them will have even more appeal to both Left and Right, and the strains on our economy make it seem like good business sense. But the fight against al-Qaeda is not over, and it is far from our only enemy. September 11 thrust the United States into a generation-long conflict: It is our Thirty Years’, perhaps our Hundred Years’ War.
Bin Laden’s death is a welcome antidote to self-hatred and funk. America remembers its own and defends itself. She goes not abroad, as John Quincy Adams once said, in search of monsters to destroy. But when they come in search of us, we will destroy them — one by one by one.
One of the commenters there says the at-sea-burial-deniers will now be known as "boaters" a la "birthers."
MY Questions: Since we've now heard that the SEAL Team 6 code designation for Bin Laden on this mission was "Geronimo" then...
A. Will we now hear from disgruntled Native American activist groups at this clear racial slight by the evil Great White Father in Washington?
B. When they dumped the body out of the chopper over the Indian Ocean somewhere, did anyone on board, in the tradition of skydivers and airborne paratroopers everywhere, give a hearty shout of...."Geronimo!"????
I can't find any evidence that John Wilkes Booth was deliberately buried in an unmarked grave to deter a cult being built around him. In fact, he was buried in the family burying plot: External Link
I have to say, the comparison between Booth and Bin Laden, implying that history never changes, is a bit gratuitous. There is a world of a difference between those who seek to kill the powerful and those who seek to kill the powerless, although of course the Editors make the correct point that both are evil.
Nice try on the back-slapping glee and altruistic largess in killing a foremost terrorist amongst us, but your mention of Mr. Bush as responsible for any of it is not only insulting, but sounds a lot like the lies he fabricated and solemnly swore to the American people then sucked us into a quagmire from which we will never escape. 9/11 was a totally preventable attack - they warned us in 1993 they'd be back to finish the job and we laughed. Bush and his cronies predicated his entire act of war-profiteering on lies and duplicity, plain and simple. Under his mastery of confusing issues, misdirection, and politics he has killed and maimed more Americans that bin Laden ever did, all under the truly misconstrued guise of honor and principles. And his legacy of carnage continues. Bin Laden did it as a depraved and rabid Islamic extremist, Bush did it for his special interest masters and money. Which is worse? Looking at the plight of America now, mired in the quicksand of Islamic hatred so vile and intense, the world will never be the same. Thanks to our current President's no-nonsense and non-conflicted sense of justice there is one less monster in our midst, but America will never be able to walk down the streets of our own country without looking over our shoulders, again. America never learns that minding one's own business is the way to create a better, more peaceful world instead foments trouble whenever it can. Too bad we aren't like Scandinavia - truly great nations, still.
Applying the same logic the left used to undermine President Bush's war on terror, there is little doubt that the murder of the symbolic leader of Al Qaeda, the terrorist who inspired the terrorists, will incite even more hatred against the West and will be used as the recruiting tool extraordinaire. OBL's fellow terrorists have already promised fierce retribution and if it happens, and more innocent lives are lost, will OBL at the bottom of the ocean be worth the price we paid?
I, for one, am glad the man is dead, as no good comes from allowing that kind of evil to exist. But that's not the way the left thinks and President Obama leans much closer to the left than he does to the middle or the right. He actively participated in the left's dangerous political game of accusing President Bush of inciting terrorists to kill people, so how does he rationalize his decision to take out OBL?
I'm just glad this animal is dead. He represents the worst of humanity, and I dare say those that glorify him or his actions do as well. He is and always has been nothing more than a sadistic insane zealot using religion as a means to his own ends like so many insane animals before him.
Great work by all involved, definitely! But now I fear Pres. Obama and the Left will use this as an excuse to declare "mission accomplished" and abandon the progress we've made in Iraq/Afghanistan...
The war on terror may, or may not, be over. How, pray tell, will we know? And who would be so bold as to pronounce it so, were it so?
What is over, and has been for some time, is our interests in Afghanistan. We've long ago accomplished our mission there, in it's limited sense, and now merely expend lives and treasure in a half-hearted effort at an undefined goal. Unlike Afghanistan, we should never have begun in Libya.
What remains are our neglected strategic interests, among which a stable Iraq remains, and the continued revamping of our military and intelligence services to meet 21st century demands throughout the world.Counterinsurgency and nation-building should not be part of that effort.
Speaking of comparisons to the past, here's a question I don't know the answer to that perhaps some of our more historically-adept folks can answer and that I think is of interest:
It is VERY clear that, especially in a semi-police-state like Pakistan, there is NO way he could have lived there for years within shouting distance of the Pakistani "West Point" without the government knowing and approving of that situation.
SO...while many are considering sanctions or at least the cessation of our foreign aid to Pakistan (certainly an easy save of billions in our budget crisis, too) I wonder....
When Eichmann and other Nazi's were found to be hiding out, clearly with governmental complicity to some degree even if via bribery pure and simple, in Argentina and Brazil and such locales....did the USA ever take any punitive measures against those South American governments, financial or otherwise? Or was our fear of "driving them into the arms of the Soviets" during the post-war Cold War era the excuse why not?
I really resent the fact that in effect the U.S. Taxpayer has been footing the bill for Bin Laden's rent in Abbottabad (named after a BRIT soldier, btw) and I'm guessing that after the cheering dies down a lot of Americans will agree. So...some history, please somebody? Thanks!
Credit to Obama for ordering the raid. Ironically, had candidate Obama had his way, President Obama would have been in no position to give the order. As AP, MSNBC, the Washington Post and other like-minded rightwing sources are reporting, the original intelligence thread that led finally to UBL's location was first uncovered in 2004 as a result of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation measures, and was already close to fruition in 2007, thanks again to the very techniques Obama condemned and later halted. Just as Obama is taking credit for increased oil production spurred by actions taken by Bush -- actions he has rescinded -- he is now taking credit for actionable intelligence he would have never possessed had his own policies been in effect. His efforts to stop oil production will only lead to higher gasoline prices. One shudders to think what the intelligence vacuum he has created will lead to in the days ahead. As it stands now, Obama claiming credit for this operation is akin to a Washington Redskin fan dancing in the end zone after a Dallas Cowboys touchdown. Give credit where credit is due; to the men and women of the CIA, the Navy Seals who pulled the trigger, and a President who devoted seven years to uncovering the trail that finally ended in yesterday's raid. As for those who believe this is the most important triumph in the war on terror, it pales in comparison to the eradication of two long-time terrorist regimes and the elimination of Afghanistan as a terrorist safe haven. The campaign in Afghanistan killed tens of thousands of trained al Qaeda operatives, any one of whom could have been the instrument of death to thousands of innocents. Instead of being home to al Qaeda, Afghanistan became a base of operations for the U.S. Seals who killed bin Laden. We can all be glad UBL's dead, but the threat of radical Jihadists is still with us, and we forget that at our peril. If anything, what this operation tells us about nuclear-armed Pakistan should chill us all to the bone...
America is bankrupt. 14 trillion dollars have to be repaid, through inflation and direct taxation by future generations. Americans' standard of living is going to diminish and many will be unemployed and homeless.
Oh, but I forgot, there's still the remarkably vague "war on terror". Well in that case, who cares about the debt! Spend away! Let's get those bad guys! Yeehawww!!
Sarah Philips: "Too bad we aren't like Scandinavia - truly great nations, still."
You mean like the Swedes, who sold steel to the Nazis and gave them free passage through Sweden to attack Norway for a Nazi promise not to engage the Swedes?
I'm probably going to sound like Jack Nicholson's character in "A Few Good Men" but the death of Osama bin Laden probably has saved lives. The beliefs he encouraged and inspired in others have kept the people of Afghanistan impoverished and backwards through fear and ignorance. It's more than just the people who his fellow travelers blew up. It's the people who could not get medical care because Al Queda and their allies, the Taliban, would not allow women doctors to practice. It's the children, again, mostly female, that were not allowed to learn to read or only to read the Koran. The culture that was almost destroyed because singing, dancing, and even sports (with the noted exception of Cricket) were banned. The missed opportunities. While bin Laden was not an operational planner he was the head of the Al Queda movement. Those that made a hero of him are probably demoralized today because of his death at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs. Especially since, through the actions of various organizations: U.S. Military, the CIA, the FBI, an alphabet soup of U.S. government agencies, as well as many foreign militaries, organizations, and contractors, there is no one to replace him. I am on my fifth combat tour and my third to Afghanistan. My choice to stay fighting has effectively made me an absentee father and my wife a single parent. I can now retire from the Army knowing that the man that started this tragic war is dead. That my children will probably not have to fight the same fight I have. While this war is not done, it is a decisive blow against the monsters that have held the world hostage for so many years.
The War on Terror has cost a lot of money and a lot of lives but it has made us not one iota safer. We should use this opportunity to end this clusterfrack and restore our laws and values so carelessly abandonded in this exercise in paranoia and uniquely American over-reaction.
I see Smithers is still trying to push his delusion that there are no dangers out there, and that if we just loved everybody as much as he does, then we could disband our military completely.
MarkW: You have a unique gift for taking what I say and extrapolating it into your own broad indictments of the left. As a veteran and the son of a veteran, I have no interest in disbanding the military. However, I think we should leave Afghanistan entirely. There is nothing to be won or gained. In Iraq we should continue our rapid drawdown.
We should also repeal the Patriot Act, close Gitmo and try the detainees in civilian court. Feel free to mock those items with specificity rather than indulging your delusions.
