The Death OF Bin Laden

by tristero

Congratulations to the women and men, both in this country and elsewhere, who worked for over ten years to find and capture/kill Osama bin Laden. The details are still very sketchy and there are many questions, but this was undoubtedly an incredibly difficult task, and a frustrating one. But they succeeded, finally, and I feel they deserve our thanks.

I agree with much of Digby’s post below. I, too, would have preferred to have had Bin Laden captured, tried, and sentenced to life imprisonment. But that is yesterday. Today, we deal with the aftermath of his death.

If there has been any change in the level of threat from radical Islamists, it probably will not be in the direction we all hope for. Bin Laden is now, officially, a martyr, murdered at the hands of the infidels, the Great Satan, blah blah blah. The problem with that is that martyrs often provoke vengeance.

It is only a matter of time, and my guess is that it will not be too much time, before there is another direct attempt on the lives of Americans within the United States. Bin Laden’s death at the hands of the US has been anticipated by everyone. Surely, al Qaeda has been waiting for this moment – or possibly, waiting for the heightened security of this moment to abate – in order to strike. As far as I understand, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is considered the operational brains behind Al Qaeda, is still around. Furthermore, the associated Al Qaeda groups, and new groups dedicated to avenging Bin Laden’s defeat and now death are certainly gearing up. I can only hope that the Obama administration understands this. The next few years will be especially difficult.

From Republicans, we can expect the following (I haven’t yet read what they have to say; it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that they’ve already started):

1.Bin Laden’s death is unimportant – No, it will not end anything, but this is a deeply significant event, both here and around the world, especially in Islamic countries.

2. Outrage that Obama “hogged all the credit” in his speech and failed to thank Bush by name – This will deflect the story away from bin Laden’s death and onto the “character” of Obama. Nevermind that Bush failed not only to catch him, but failed to protect us from bin Laden in the first place: they will try to make Obama’s “uppitiness” the story (but of course, except maybe in the south, they won’t use that word).

3. From now on, any attack on the US that succeeds will be blamed on Obama for somehow “botching” the killing the of Bin Laden, or the disposal of his body. And make no mistake, the right will comb over whatever is published about the attack looking for problems and evidence of cover-up.

4. The more lunatic members of the GOP – ie, the teabaggers, the leadership, and Fox News – will raise suspicions about whether bin Laden was, in fact, actually killed. The mainstream press will report this garbage “objectively.”

In other words, Obama may plead as loud as he can for the country to come together over this death. It isn’t going to happen.

One final, thought; It’s a very cynical thought, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless: If ever there was a time that Obama could be persuaded to pursue even a moderately liberal agenda – as opposed to a (roughly) centrist/right one – that time is now. It is likely he will never be more popular. If progressive politicians haven’t anticipated this moment, and if they’re not prepared to make a full court press for those policies that matter to us, they will have failed us and there should be hell to pay. Opportunities this good are very, very rare, and very, very fleeting.

But I don’t want to end on such a jaded note. The death of bin Laden is astonishing news, amazing news, incredible. He achieved the martyrdom he so dearly sought, and which so much of America also dearly sought to provide him. Obama’s task now is to negotiate a post-Osama world, a world just as dangerous as the one before, if not more so, but without the conveniently charismatic bogeyman “other” Osama’s persona and legend provided.

We live in terribly interesting times.