There has really been only one thing in the news this week. I am referring of course to the successful raid by Navy SEALs of a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, culminating in the death of Osama Bin Laden. On May 1st, the FBI’s most wanted terrorist was finally killed nearly 10 years after he masterminded the 9/11 tragedy and after 30 years of violent jihadist terrorism. That day was coincidently my birthday and the news definitely added an extra bit of cheer to my day, as it did to most Americans and justice loving people the world over.
Bin Laden’s death is the crowning achievement of America’s ongoing War on Terror and has been handled successfully by the White House. Everything about the whole operation has showed me how America has adapted to the type of irregular warfare that has proved troublesome for quite some time.From the planning to the execution to the aftermath, Obama and his advisors have handled everything perfectly. There will obviously be critics and skeptics, but at least in this case, no blame should be attached.
The U.S. first got a tip that Osama might be hiding in a compound in a military town in Pakistan in August 2010. They rightly took their time in their preparation and made sure they did things right this time. Bin Laden’s elusiveness was finally not underestimated.
Given all of the highly sensitive information that Wikileaks has released over the past months, I commend the U.S. for managing to keep this information secret while the Navy built a full-size replica of the one-acre compound in Va.
When the time came for the actual raid, some of our most highly prized military assets, a team of Navy SEALs helicoptered in and within 40 minutes had killed five and captured 17. This is the type of perfection that we come to expect from SEALs. It reminds me of the SEALs who killed the three Somali pirates who were holding an American captain hostage with only three shots. The U.S. did not consult the Pakistani government, who at first claimed they were complicit in the raid but later retracted that statement. This may be a breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty, but it was a necessary cause. It showed that we are not afraid to step on some toes in the search for justice. When those toes have been known to harbor terrorists, it does not even surprise me that they were not consulted.
Following the successful raid, the U.S. verified with DNA evidence that it was in fact Bin Laden who had been killed and then dumped his body in the ocean. This was a controversial and somewhat confusing decision, but it was the right one in the long term. One of the biggest challenges that our military now faces is the possibility of retaliation by al Qaeda.
They may be a headless organization for now, but there are still plenty of dangerous and competent men ready to fill Bin Laden’s shoes. Chief among them is Ayman al-Zawahri, who is expected by many to rise to the number one position. The most important thing for the White House to do now is limit the fury stirred up in the radical Islamist communities. By burying Bin Laden at sea, there will be no place for followers to visit his grave. This will lessen his impact as a martyr.
The same goes for Obama’s decision not to release photographs of Bin Laden’s corpse. Skeptics will argue that this indicated that he was not actually killed in this raid and is either long dead or still alive.
First, there is no way that Bin Laden is still alive. Obama would not have gone public with his death when all it would take is a new video of Bin Laden with today’s newspaper to discredit him. The U.S. would not have claimed his death unless it had definitive proof. If it had definitive proof before, it would have released the news earlier. By not releasing the photos (which are apparently very graphic), Obama has limited the martyrdom of Bin Laden. Winston Churchill’s famous quote says it all: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Obama rightly knows that this is not the end of the War on Terror and it should not be treated as such. By not releasing the photographs, he is keeping the future safety of American lives in mind. Bin Laden’s death was certainly a boost for Americans’ morale (and an 11 point boost to Obama’s approval rating), but it is only a step on the path.
