The Death of Osama Bin Laden
The Death of Bin Laden
It was almost ten years, freshly out of Law school, on that somber morn when my wife woke me up and informed me that America was attacked by terrorists – shortly after, we put the face of Bin Laden as the person who masterminded the killing of over 3,000 of our citizens. We also knew that Bin Laden had sanctioned many attacks on our interests: the attack on the U.S.S Cole, which killed seventeen of our service men and women; the Khobar Towers in East Africa, which killed thousands; and the countless attacks in the past and to come inspired by Osama Bin Laden.
As I write, there are crowds outside the White House lawn… jubilant in hearing the news that Bin Laden was killed by Special Ops in Pakistan. We were told by President Obama that he authorized the operations last week and received confirmation of the terror mastermind death. The President also said that our Intelligence was tracking Bin Laden since last August, which positively came to a head last week.
Our celebration must be tempered with vigilance because we know that there will be retaliation against Americans here and abroad. We cannot deny the psychological impact the death of Bin Laden will have on all the players involved in the war on terror; and it was prudent that our Special Ops team secured Bin Laden’s body so that the conspiracy theories would not hold sway in the coming days. To all those who lost loved ones because of those attacks on that fateful day of 911, I hope that they receive some sort of closure because of the death of Bin Laden. We must also be mindful that terrorism is not over for us because this form of murder has become a religion, and, as such, will always have its converts.
I do not want to hear any criticism of President Obama concerning the killing of Bin Laden – props to President Obama and our Intelligence for fulfilling the mandate of President Bush. It must be noted that even though we have Bin Laden's body, the conspiracy mavens will be concocting their stew of specious tales. The blogosphere will be replete with these conspiracies and sadly they will be given credence by some.
The questions that beg themselves, due to Bin Laden’s death, have to do with the schizophrenic bilateral relations we have with the Pakistanis who supposed to be an ally. Bin Laden was killed in what is described as a military town in Pakistan – did the Pakistani Intelligence knew Bin Laden’s whereabouts all this time, while receiving $7 Billion in aid from us? How are the Arab streets going to react when they learn of the death of Bin Laden, who is a hero to many?
Perhaps, because many of the Arab streets are going through the birth pangs of Democracy… might temper the outrage that many of the Arab youths might have felt had it been any other time. It bodes well that Bin Laden had been dead for close to a week now and we must assume that word had spread about his demise and the Arab streets did not erupt. On May 1st, 2011, Osama Bin Laden met justice… the saga continues and I hope we maintain the same fortitude and resolve.
