Bin Laden dead?

[Captain Picard's Hair]

...or martyred (to his followers?)

Though I'm not sure of the practical significance. Reports are that Al Qaeda is highly decentralized now, and in any case the fundamentalist Islamic belief system is far from dead. Some may claim retribution at long last from 9/11, but the idea behind the attack is more important than the man. As to the remains of the attack, the NYC skyline still has that hole in it after a decade; if there were any bigger way to bungle the notion of getting back on our feet and showing that we won't be held back by terrorism, I'd hate to see it.

[Mikey]

You beat me to it, but that would have been my question as well: Bin Laden is dead, but will anything change?

[Nutso]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 1556.story

People are gathered outside the White House. In happiness,

[Foxfyre]

Damn, what a way to start off my monday.

[Captain Seafort]

Though I'm not sure of the practical significance.

None whatsoever, and I can see two significant downsides to this:

1) It means that Obama will probably be reelected, and I was hoping to see the back of that idiot in a couple of years.
2) It represents an irretrievable failure to bring ObL to justice. Probably an inevitable, since I doubt he was ever going to meekly surrender, but a failure nonetheless.

[Reliant121]

I can't help but think, granted after a few years of recovery, another leader will simply rise to take Bin Laden's place.

[Graham Kennedy]

Certainly somebody else will replace him - in that way it's representative of the idiocy of the "war on terror" in the first place. There will always be terrorists and terrorism, it's just a fact of modern life.

Nevertheless, this is a major coup for the US and for Obama. It could only be better for him if it had happened closer to the elections, but he may well be able to ride the feelgood factor back into office. At the very least it's going to be extremely hard to paint him as soft on the bad guys. All of which can only be a good thing, IMHO.

[Mikey]

The most obvious effect of this certainly is the political effect that Obama will reap. The effects on the actual "War on Terror" will be slight, I fear. What I can foresee as a positive outcome is limited to the fact that with Bin Laden (and one son, who is possibly the one who followed his father into Al-Qaeda's heirarchy) dead and al-Zawahri on the lam, Al-Qaeda's activities will now be largely coordinated through the Yemen branch which is historically smaller and less successful.

[Tyyr]

As nice as it may feel to have offed him it's not the best outcome. The best would have been to capture him and put him on trail between some guy who robbed a convenience store and a child rapist. Get rid of all the trappings of a war, and a fight, and martyrdom and try him as a common criminal.

I dunno if this will secure Obama re-election. We're a good year and a half out and the American public's attention span isn't quite that long. Also, the hunt for him had been going on a long time and Obama just happened to be in the seat when he was found. It wasn't really a big call to finish him off. Still, Presidents take the credit and the blame for anything that happens while in office and even some years afterwards so maybe he will get a bump for it.

Stewart and Colbert should be epic tonight.

[Mikey]

Obama just happened to be in the seat when he was found.

That matters precious little. The American public isn't going to remember the guy who had the idea to get Bin Laden, they'll remember the guy who got him. And believe you me, Obama's not going to let anyone forget who was in the big chair when they got him.

[Tyyr]

That much was obvious from his speech last night.

[Sionnach Glic]

Well, my congratulations to the US for finally nailing the bastard.

Unfortunately, in the grand scheme of things, this is going to do pretty much nothing. Al-Qaeda's lost a propaganda figure. That's it. Someone else will take over (assuming, that is, that someone else hadn't really been running the show ever since Bin Laden went on the run) and things will continue as normal.

[Tholian_Avenger]

Pics or it didn't happen. A Microsoft Paint drawing is also acceptable.

I wish they could have brought him to trial. Things like the national debt and the poor economy just seem so much more pressing, this seems like a rather boorish footnote.

[Graham Kennedy]

As nice as it may feel to have offed him it's not the best outcome. The best would have been to capture him and put him on trail between some guy who robbed a convenience store and a child rapist. Get rid of all the trappings of a war, and a fight, and martyrdom and try him as a common criminal.

And give every terrorist a motive to grab hostages and demand his release. "We have a busload of cheerleaders. We behead one a day until he's freed and put it on youtube."

If he was in captivity he'd be a massive focus for violence done in his name. Much better that he's dead and gone, I think.

I dunno if this will secure Obama re-election. We're a good year and a half out and the American public's attention span isn't quite that long. Also, the hunt for him had been going on a long time and Obama just happened to be in the seat when he was found. It wasn't really a big call to finish him off. Still, Presidents take the credit and the blame for anything that happens while in office and even some years afterwards so maybe he will get a bump for it.

Stewart and Colbert should be epic tonight.

There's a saying in the UK that a week is a long time in politics. Who knows what may happen between now and the election. But being the President who got Osama can only help.

And no, Obama didn't storm in personally and get it done. But the breaks of being the man in charge - you get the blame when things go wrong, whether it's your fault or not. On the upside, you get the credit when things go right, whether it's your fault or not.

[Tyyr]

Ehhhh, I dunno. I'm not convinced the world of Muslim extremism is really all that focused on him. It'd be like someone kidnapping Newt Gingrich. I may be conservative but that doesn't really motivate me to do anything about it. He's one guy who has largely spent the last decade doing everything he could not to be found, not fighting the great Satan. I'm not sure your average terrorist will actually give a shit.

He's better off tried as a common criminal and locked up in my opinion. No martyrdom, no glorious death, just rotting in a jail cell until his kidneys take him out. He dies like a common criminal. Alone in a jailcell largely forgotten.