I just heard about Osama Bin Laden's demise, at the hands of our Special Forces under the orders of President Obama.
My feelings about this are mixed. The most appropriate place for Mr. Bin Laden is six feet in the ground - had he been captured, the international custody battles and political gamesmanship would have dragged on for years, perhaps decades afterward. And given his kidney condition, Osama would have probably died before it was all over. So a political sideshow was avoided by his departure from this mortal coil. This should also guarantee Mr. Obama's re-election in 2012.
But now comes the interesting part. Exactly how big of a martyr will Mr. Bin Laden be considered, especially that he was killed at the hands of the Evil Empire? Will this lead to more terrorist attacks? What will be the reaction of the Islamic world in the Middle East and other Muslim-dominated countries, when they see the pictures of Americans celebrating his death? Unknowns abound...
Speaking about the celebrations being televised as I write this, personally I'm keeping my Moet & Chandon chilled at this time, with no plans of breaking it out. For one, throughout the decades, our foreign policy has contributed to the creation and propping up of monsters like Osama. In fact, remember when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan - who was one of the leaders of the resistance, and who got a nice share of US money and support? You guess it...Mr. Bin Laden. And his death does not mean, by any means, that Al Qaida is dead - on the contrary, I would expect some pretty heavy terrorist-sounding noise coming through the radio and TV speakers within the coming days and weeks.
So yeah, this was a victory of sorts. Like Dr. Frankenstein's monster being sent back to death - by Dr. Frankenstein.
