Osama bin Laden Has Been Killed

[filkertom]

Here's your news day.

So very many things can and will be and already have been said about this, especially given the irony of it occurring on the eight anniversary of George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" show. What occurs to me, though, is this:

• Now, maybe, just maybe, we can start boldly saying "enough already" and start removing ourselves from Iraq and Afghanistan and maybe even Pakistan.
• There will always be another bad guy to rise and take his place. Stop committing to permanent warfare based on chasing shadows. That's what bin Laden was able to do to us for years, and our nation has suffered for it.
• Some people are already protesting about the directive that bin Laden's remains "will be handled in accordance with Islamic tradition". Well, it only makes sense. He's already going to be a martyr to his followers; there is absolutely no reason to rile up those who otherwise would not consider him a martyr by desecrating his remains further.
• There is already a hue and cry from the Right about President Obama "politicizing" this. I do believe we've had enough precedent over the past eight years of the Republicans doing precisely the same thing. Moreover, there's already this (h/t jblaque).

Thoughts? Please keep it civil. And no unseemly gloating. This is not a cause for celebration; it's a cause for sighing with relief that this portion of a long and tragic story is over, and for moving on.

Comments

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Security forces are on alert, and it's going to be a bit twitchy for awhile. OBL's much more an inspirational martyr at this point, and we could all do with a little less inspiration. On the other hand, as Keith points out (http://foknewschannel.com/bin-laden-dead/):

The President is right to raise security levels at US installations and bases. However, remember the premise of Al-Qaeda is the long-planned, meticulously-choreographed “spectacular.” While an attempt at vengeance should not be discounted, it should be pointed out that what we would call in normal-human speak ‘a quick turnaround’ is not their forte. A terrorist in a hurry is a terrorist who drops the backpack bomb when he gets chased out of the subway. A terrorist in a hurry is a terrorist who lights himself and not his underwear bomb on fire. A terrorist in a hurry is a terrorist who locks his house keys in his car-bomb in Times Square.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised to see them crank the date forward on an existing plan to make the statement "We're more than just Osama, and we can still hit you." (With luck, they can't. But I don't want to count on luck, considering that I work in a top target building.)

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

I agree. My concern isn't so much a concentrated Al-Qaeda effort at this point as a bunch of--I don't know what word I want to use. Not "knee-jerk," but something akin to that.

We were bowling when the news broke. I looked over my shoulder at the television and thought, "We just made a trillion dollar martyr." Except I think we spent a bunch more than that on it, but regardless.

Keith is correct, though. Any backlash in the short term is unlikely to be Al-Qaeda, and while I can hope he's right about hurried terrorists, you can still hurt a hell of a lot of people if you happen to get lucky.

Is it odd that I'm more nervous about acts of terror tonight than I have been at any point in probably the last two or three years? It may be a misperception on my part, to be fair. I just feel so damned wary.

[sdelmonte]

You are not alone in that. There is a part of me that wishes his death was never announced.