The image, caught on home video, is a defining one: a hunched Osama bin Laden, in pathetic, lonely domesticity, with a grey beard and a blanket covering him like a shawl, surveying the television wasteland for images of himself. How banal this epitome of evil turned out to be.
That is why Osama's elimination by US commandos is such a marvellous case study. Start with this question: Was it poetic or divine justice that al-Qaeda's leader, whose group, born in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1988, was fathered by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and midwifed by the CIA, was finally killed by his figurative creators?
This question leads to two more that are anything but rhetorical: Where, in the end, does the fault for bin Laden's murderous decades lie? And will his death mark the end of global jihadist terrorism?
To be sure, street protests and a chaotic clamour of recrimination have gripped Pakistan, while dire threats float in the internet ether and a bizarre indifference pervades the rest of the Muslim world. But events in the Maghreb and the Middle East seem to demonstrate that the streams of Arab and Muslim political life are flowing away from Osama's murderous messianism.
That is why the crucial test today is what happens tomorrow in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The future of Pakistan, peace in Afghanistan, normalcy in India-Pakistan relations, and economic progress in South Asia all hinge on whether bin Laden's death dilutes extremism and dissolves intolerance or re-concentrates both.
The history of the region's discord is a complex mix of ethnic, territorial, and existential fears, imaginary or real. But now that America's mission in Afghanistan has, at least symbolically, achieved its objectives, a new chapter must open. To persist with the old "reordering" of Afghanistan would be sheer folly, dissipating whatever good might come from the end of Bin Laden's blood-soaked career.
But the United States alone cannot bring peace to the region. A broader regional condominium, involving Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Russia, and, yes, Iran, must be brought into play.
For this to happen, however, the first step must come from Pakistan. It must now renounce terrorism as an instrument of state policy; stop employing groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba as strategic reserves against India; and abandon aspirations of acquiring overweening influence over the government in Kabul.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/op … 35716.html
Can Obama use experienced John Kerry to forge a new path toward peace and love in the Hindu Kush?
Haven't we learned yet? Obama can't do anything that his puppet masters won't allow him to do. The only reason they killed osama was to bring up favor for Obama, which it only did barely.
As for peace in the middle east, I don't think a thing will change, because for them and for everyone else in the world, killing osama did nothing but waste a life that was already dead. No one can force anyone to change. The change has to be wanted and can never be forced.
Hate cannot be eliminated by hate.
Israel will be attacked by all nations. Hate is functioning everywhere. It has even religious coat of it (replacement theology).
Then Israel will turn to God. And then we will see something else.
Poetic Justice, yes, Devine Justice? Not sure on this one. I do know there is a diference between Providence and Man made right. But in this case I'd say it was pure pay-back, all man made. And deserved for sure.
The idea has to be: to control the oil is to control the masses. So looking like a change of policy. Bin Laden dead and a Marshal Plan for the multi-nationals. Israel is to pretend to the '67 secure borders peace process for awhile till things cool down.
More like control the Oil, control the world!
by OLYHOOCH 13 years ago
By HUMA KHAN and MATTHEW JAFFE May 5, 2011In the wake of the U.S.-led operation that killed Osama bin Laden, billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to Pakistan are in jeopardy as relations between the two countries turn sour. Pakistan is coming under fire for not being able to spot bin Laden, who,...
by TimTurner 15 years ago
Most of you know I am very critical of Obama but it looks like he is going to send about 20,000 to 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan which is what needs to be done. At least, that is the rumor on the street.For all of you who support Obama, I'm assuming you will be against this...
by Ron Montgomery 13 years ago
His is the face of evil throughout the world, especially here in the USA. His very existence an affront to the Christian God who will surely see that he and all radical Islamists roast in the lakes of fire for all eternity. Osama was bad too.Thankfully May 21,2011 is almost here; me and...
by Mohideen Basha 16 years ago
Stamping out Al Qaeda "once and for all" and capturing or killing its elusive leader Osama bin Laden would be a "top priority" for the next US Government.,President elect Barak Obama has said.OK. Obama vs Osama - in this game who is going to win.?
by SparklingJewel 13 years ago
a little something sent to me...do you believe it? do you really care? "Every indication clearly points to last Sunday’s raid being a manufactured ploy to return Americans to a state of post-9/11 intellectual castration" Paul Joseph WatsonInfowars.comMay 9, 2011Merely a week after...
by thirdmillenium 15 years ago
Time and again Pakistan has been insisting that Laden is in all probability dead. The latest is the Pak PM's assertion in Washington yesterday. Do you believe Pakistan?
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