For anyone that has an even remotely well developed sense of right and wrong Osama Bin Laden was a truly evil bastard.
For those in the Middle East for whom attacking the 'strong horse' (in the current world that's the US) brings a sense of pride and purpose OBL was an inspiration and hero.
For those that are into cultural relativism and blame America for all of the world's ills OBL was something of an anti-hero; someone that they knew really wasn't a good guy but they cheered for anyway, partly because the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Well, he's dead now and good riddance to bad rubbish.
A few comments and predictions on the whole thing.
1. President Obama deserves praise for not only making a tough decision but also choosing not to use a missile a few months ago when it was determined that OBL was in the compound. Mr Obama knew that people would need to have proof that he had been killed so he took a risk and waited until the SEAL team was trained and ready to go. A gutsy call. In his speech to announce the death he also made a point that America was not at war with Islam and that OBL was not a Muslim leader, he was a murderer of Muslims. It's a good line. He also paid credit to the efforts of George W Bush, which was classy.
2. While there may be a few retaliatory incidents by Al Qaeda inspired terrorist groups OBL's death marks the beginning of the end of Islamist terror. I am reasonably confident about this prediction but make the exception of those atrocities carried out by Hamas/Hezbollah, which existed prior to Al Qaeda and have their own goals. In spite of so called Islamic leaders telling us that OBL did not represent the true Islam he was a hero to the majority of the Islamic world, especially the Arabs, and inspiration to those that shared his belief that Islam could once again be the world's dominant religion with Christianity and Judaism subservient to it. There is nobody who can replace his aura and authority. Ayman al-Zawahiri is clearly an excellent strategist and organiser but does not inspire his followers in anywhere near the same way as OBL did. His death is a body blow to organised terror.
3. Peace will come to the Arab world, excluding Israel/Palestine, sooner rather than later. Another big call. Bush's strategy of taking out Saddam Hussein and bringing democracy to the Arab world is, after a fashion, starting to come together. Have you noticed all of the crowds in the Arab streets cheering at the death of OBL, the man who supposedly distorted Islam and gave all of those 'moderate' Muslims a bad name? No, me neither. That's because there is great disappointment throughout the Arab world at the demise of their idol and, being Arabs, they will go back into their shells. I think that those countries that are currently experiencing uprisings will sort themselves out and, to be somewhat heretical here, even if the Muslim Brotherhood takes over in Egypt and elsewhere (they're the ones behind the trouble in Yemen, Bahrain and Syria, as well as being the progenitor of Hamas and Al Qaeda) they will be forced to modernise quite quickly in order to meet the needs of the people. Otherwise, they'll have an uprising of their own to deal with.
4. Bring on the Wikileaks release of information on the hunt for Bin Laden. I am 100% sure that it will vindicate the position of the conservative side of the argument - and prove the wisdom of Bush's incursion into Iraq - as it has been the case in nearly every leak so far, which is a point that is being quietly ignored by the anti-Bush, anti-West, anti-decency left.
5. We now know that Osama was killed in a compound only a short distance from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, where he'd been living for quite some time apparently unbeknown to the citizens of Abbottabad. It does seem remarkably unlikely that he could have moved around in Pakistan let alone live in such circumstances without the help of sponsors and supporters in the Pakistan government, military and intelligence service. It also seems unlikely that Pakistan was given advance notice of the raid, as that would surely have allowed OBL to receive the information and escape. People are (rightly) asking questions about the support of OBL by the Pakistani authorities. In my view it would be much better if the Pakistan intelligence service, the ISI, had provided the information to the US or that he had been 'given up' by the military or politicians because it would be a signal that there has been a change of attitude in the country for the support of Islamic fundamentalism. I think it's 50-50 that Pakistan helped/did not help the operation.
6. What has happened to the moral compass of those who are complaining about the cheering of the death of Osama Bin Laden? Andrew Bolt has a few examples from the ABC that are truly shocking. After 9/11, George W Bush said that it didn't matter where OBL was and how long it took he was going to be hunted down and have justice served. Thus began a task to bring vengeance to those who had attacked the country and killed 2973 innocent people, as well as injuring thousands more. On December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour killing 2402 people and waking a sleeping giant hell bent on revenge. Correcting such injustice will always carry a euphoric aftermath when the object of the vengeance has been dealt with. On VJ Day millions of Americans (and Australians and Kiwis etc) celebrated mightily. Justice was done. There's no difference between that and celebrating the death of OBL.
7. I know it will be glossed over/ignored by the anti-Israel lobby but it really does show who they're supporting when Hamas calls the killing of Bin Laden an 'atrocity'. Hamas has a slogan "We love death more than you love life". Apparently, when it's the death of one of their own they're not so much in love with it, are they? I can translate that slogan into one that everyone can understand, "We love killing more than you love life".
8. Israel and Palestine. The recent announcement that Hamas and Fatah were working together in order to have Palestine recognised as its own state, coupled with the decision by Egypt to open the border between Gaza and the Sinai, should send shivers down the spines of anyone who can think straight and understand what's going on. At present the United Nations recognises that Israel occupies Palestinian 'territories'. That those territories were fairly won as the spoils of a war started by the Arabs doesn't seem to enter into the calculation and provides further proof, if needed, that the UN is run by despots. If Palestine is recognised as a sovereign state in its own right then all of a sudden Israel is occupying another country and the equation changes massively, especially if the UN recognises Palestine being at the 1967 borders. Egypt has decided to open the border in order to gain leverage with the world's powers, as it will allow Hamas to import a massive amount of armaments and increase the trouble for Israel. At some point Israel is going to need to wipe out Hamas completely. They'll be forced to.
I'm still cheering my arse off at the death of a truly evil bastard. Hopefully, we can get a few more soon, including Gaddafi. It's a pity he managed to escape the other day. Would have made it a real good week.
(Nothing Follows)
