Bin Laden dead

[Commodore GS/E]

I too wonder what his death brings. Not to be cynical, but how much of the daily Al Quaida things does he run anyway? He might not have been able to contribute, given his health and all. There will most definitely be a successor anyway.

But it's good we got him, it's just the "what now?" factor.

I think it's only becoming more complicated now. Al Quaida may have lost their "boss", but cutting the snake's head doesn't work here, obviously. Therrorism isn't a snake, it's a hydra. And the worst part is that they have no idea who their new leader is.

[Chernaudi]

I would have to agree that it's good riddance that Bin Laden is finally gone.

But I pose the same question here as I would about hypothetical scinerios involving the deaths of Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin. If they were taken out, who could've taken their place. There were plenty of people in Hitler's cadre that could've filled for him, and the same with Stalin.

Only thing we can hope for here is just like with Stalin--that it would take a while to find a true successor. However in this case, one may already be there for Bin Laden, and has probably been secretly running the show for a while now.

Osama Bin Laden may've been the head puppet master and the main money man, but you've gotta believe that there's someone who'd be willing to fill in his place, if not already doing so. Just like with Hitler and Stalin, someone would've eventually have taken their places if they were snuffed out, and only with the Nazis being on their last legs kept that from happening with Hitler.

[Matra et Alpine]

Chernaudi, the problem in your comparisons is that Fascism and Stalinism were hiererchical organisations with a controlling hand from their leaders in all things.

Terrorist organisations dont work like that.
Bin Laden was only a figurehead ( the equivalent of the British Queen ). nothing will actually be any different than before OTHER than that history shows us that dead martyrs create more people willing to kill for the "cause"

We would have been better served with a trial .. even if it WOULD be embarrassing as the support given Bin Laden when he was a nobody that created the myth of him as a great leader would have been forced into the light

Many of us cannot understand how many national leaders do not look to recent terrorist groups and the failings in removing leadership ( ie Provisional IRA, internment and H-block ) and necessitates stepping back and seeking peace no matter HOW initally repulsive that is. But the media-whipped hysteria on the "allied" side of this leaves us little hope.

[LeonOfTheDead]

The news of his death came as something I wasn't surprised or interested into.

Al-Queda, Bin Laden and others at a certain point were just names in my head.
Never though it was all a conspiracy to move forward with other wars and an excuse to colonized/invade other countries as some are saying. That's definitely not my point of view.

My idea of them is that, along the line of what Matra is probably trying to say (or that I'm trying to understand ), at a certain point we as a media influenced culture began thinking they were the present evil and what was wrong with the world. The idea that once we would have take them both out everything would have been find popped into the minds of many I know.

It probably helped them materializing a fear for a force that could strike at any moment with any face, and at the same time helped the various government had someone specific to blame. Terrorism is such an impersonal enemy you know people could grow bored with it. Which is stupid, but I suppose also a hard fact. We need someone to blame and we need revenge.

First thing that actually popped into my mind is how people could talk about a terrorist organization as if it was an ordinary army or nation. Not saying you can't fight or defeat them, just underlining how we managed to believe they were like Nazis 60 years ago, and probably we were also pretending that once this new war or whatever you may want to call it, everything would have been ok.

Sort of like thinking no one was a Nazi in Germany after WWII was over, or a Fascist in Italy for that matters, nothing against our friends up north .

The fact I can still find on a daily basis people of all ages talking like if we really were a dominant race over people from Africa, Eastern Europe and so on just underlines how taking out a leader of something like a terrorist organization is sort of irrelevant, I'm afraid.

Make no mistake I'm glad something have moved forward with this event, I hope.

Then again much more than an army as with the Nazis and Fascists, terrorism is made out of ordinary people. People like you and me, with an ordinary life and a not so special training in many cases.

Which promptly makes me realize how an actual army would have strike back after such an event with a proper war action or something. When you're dealing with "martyrs", fanatics and manipulated kids everything is possible. Which is why we can't live in the fairy tale that we can really get them out of the picture overnight.

I'm pretty sure there are quite some big heads which already knew whatever we may come up with in this forum in just about any intelligence agency all around the world. So I don't expect a situation "we" can't handle coming next as an act of vengeance. What I could expect is people indeed grave dancing without realizing they aren't doing much better than those people blindingly and pointlessly calling the names of "martyrs" without realizing what just really happened, until some of them became one themselves.

That's not what's going to help us in getting over.

As I said, I'm glad things made a step forward, yes, I'd have preferred something more "civil" and not even like with Hussein.
Hangin up Mussolini didn't make Italy a better place, even if he didn't deserve a nice treatment either.

Hope it makes sense.

[clutch-monkey]

whelp thank god the war on terrorism is over, i guess we can all go home now

.....

i don't really think it's as big a deal as americans seem to think so judging by their celebrations - which is asking for retaliation imo.. it's a bit over the top and nobody likes smug people.
also i agree on the martyr issue, could end up being a middle eastern obi wan kenobi

[pimento]

It's only a big deal symbolically, if anything the war efforts have to tighten up and probably ramp up a bit for a while. It is rather gauche and goading to be throwing parties and whatnot over it, but it was inevitable really.

[RacingManiac]

All I know is this could make for a good movie......

[pimento]

Team America 2: Electric Boogaloo?

[clutch-monkey]

it will be in the next call of duty game..

[Roentgen]

I guess every coin has 2 sides...

[FastDriver]

I think people are celebrating too early. It is great they caught him, but that just gives them more of a reason to attack us... I saw the president speak live on the news. it was 6:30 am in Iraq, 11:30 am Eastern standard time...

[crisis]

It's only a big deal symbolically.

The whole deal is symbolic. All the terrorist attacks serve no purpose other than to work in the minds of the public, force governments to invoke laws that cause disruption to how we go about our lives and try to convince us that we must live in fear of the unknown. It mobilises the simple minded against Islam and as such gives justification to the likewise simple minded Muslims that the west hates them. Just as Al Qaeda said.

I believe it does strike a blow at al Qaeda and sends a message to terrorist leaders. It shows in a petulant and belligerent way that if you mess with the USA they will hunt you down and kill you. That said it will not stop ongoing conflict. Religion is there to make sure of that.

I am a little perplexed as to why there was no news of this leaked given it was supposed to have happened last week. If so why didn’t Al Qaeda communicate this with anyone? I guess as with all of this the truth plays little part in the story we are told.

[pimento]

Religion is there to make sure of that.

Lets narrow that down to "Religious fundamentalism is there to make sure of that." Al Qaeda are just as ruthless and harmful to Muslims as they are to anyone else.

[kingofthering]

Betcha this will make it into the next Call of Duty or Battlefield game.

[Drones]

With the same success could announce that they killed Harry Potter

Bin Laden - a mythical character, to which it is convenient to translate the public's attention at the right time.
Economic, social, judiciary, media, culture ... are in full decline, President - marionette, continuing a military capture territories of other countries, every day civilians are dying, but declared that without trial or investigation of a murdered man and the people rejoicing - USA! USA!
You know, the U.S. is more like the Roman Empire at the time of the fall.