FACEOFF: Does the death of Osama bin Laden matter in the overall big picture of the war on terror?

After nearly 10 years on the run as the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Osama bin Laden was finally brought to justice last Sunday at the business end of two “American” bullets, point blank to the temple.

Approved by President Obama and monitored in real time by the president and other senior administration officials, the raid by Navy SEALs culminated months of planning, and more than nine years of dogged intelligence work trying to track and locate the elusive leader of the al-Qaeda terror network.

Other than the loss of one of three helicopters to mechanical failure, the daring operation deep inside Pakistan went off without a hitch, earning Obama rare praise from both sides of the political aisle, as Americans returned, however briefly, to the unity that marked the nation in the dark days following the 9-11 attack.

Five minutes after the most wanted man in the world was killed, his body was aboard a U.S. helicopter. Photos were taken, DNA compared, and the terrorist’s identity was confirmed.

To avoid allowing his body to become a shrine to Muslim extremists, U.S. officials had the corpse washed in the religion’s tradition, and then buried at sea.

Osama bin Laden is dead. The war on terror continues.

FACEOFF: Does the death of Osama bin Laden matter in the overall big picture of the war on terror?

By Charlie Meyer:

Last Sunday night, President Obama announced that our intelligence and special warfare communities eliminated Public Enemy No. 1: Osama bin Laden.

Americans rightly sing the praises of wearers of the “Budweiser,” as the eagle and trident insignia of Navy SEALs. (Sea, Air, and Land) warriors is fondly called. SEAL teams are at the pointy end of the spear, and Navy Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) is the pointiest of all. Nearly a quarter-century ago, I was the financial officer of the Naval School, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, and had the handicap of having to compete for training dollars against “our web-footed friends” in the SEAL training community.

I am far from inferring the intimacy of “friends” with that highly secretive unit then called SEAL Team Six, but “The Jedi,” as some called them back then, were and are a singularly special group of warriors, even if they didn’t frequent the base barber shop.   Even chasing down a wayward travel claim involved a telephone call answered only with the four-digit extension. (I did ultimately receive the travel claim.)

For all the rhetoric of those wanting to run government “as a business,” they would have a massive hissy-fit over how money is spent in Special Warfare.  In the 1980s, it was purported that SEAL Team Six had a larger Non Combat Expenditure Allocation for small arms ammunition than the Marine Corps.  I doubted that claim, but the successful freeing of the Master of the merchant ship Maersk Alabama in 2009 from Somali pirates, and Sunday’s take down of Osama bin Laden by SEALs made whatever money was spent well worth it.  This is not Wackenhut Corporation. They are from your United States Navy.

Fortunately, there were no American losses in the operation, a testament to the unparalleled dedication and skill of our SEAL operators and the helicopter aircrews that transported them. One helicopter was damaged and subsequently destroyed at the scene. These specialized aircraft aren’t cheap, but they are full of gear we certainly don’t want in enemy hands.  If anyone wants to scream about “big government waste” in this operation, I’d advise not doing it in New York City.

Don’t expect all the facts about the assault for decades, if at all. Even medal citations will be in conspicuously guarded terms. As one television commentator mused on Monday, the SEAL who double-tapped bin Laden’s noggin will be having beers bought for him for many years to come. Our special warriors aren’t in the trade to garner a lucrative mini-series on the Discovery Channel.  Patriotism.

Contrary words were rare. We expected that Hamas wouldn’t be thrilled, but apparently “Judge” Andrew Napolitano at that F-word “News” channel didn’t get the patriotic memo that even conspiracy spin-meister Glenn Beck paid heed to. Napolitano derided the “illegal” killing of bin Laden to knock the Obama Administration, but that old presidential order barring state-sponsored assassinations long since went by the wayside, in Republican and Democratic administrations, particularly when al Queda was involved. Napolitano’s media “jurisprudence” now ranks below Judge Judy’s.

President Obama made the risky, but bold decision for a SEAL assault.  In addition to being able to verifiably take out the world’s most notorious terrorist, the SEALs were also able to harvest a valuable trove of al Queda intelligence from computers in bin Laden’s compound. Precision bombing or drone strikes offered less risk, but none of the verifiability or the intelligence bonanza.

I direct “Judge” Napolitano and the latest conspiracy theory “deathers” to Exhibit A.  In 1943, based upon intercepted Japanese signals intelligence, American P-38 fighters shot down the aircraft carrying Japanese Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, the man who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto’s ashes returned to Nippon in a small box. In Exhibit B, the ashes of war criminals executed in Nuremburg were secretly cast into the Isar River, so as not to provide any future “shrine.”  Burying bin Laden at sea means sympathizers are going to have a very hard time looking for his grave for a seance.  Trust me: oceans are very big places.

We celebrate across the nation. In Morgantown, the home of West Virginia University (Motto: “Where Greatness Is Learned and Couches Are Burned.”), firefighters probably grumbled a bit less extinguishing old sofas burning in the streets.  I hope the student revelers made sure to applaud the firefighters in the memory of the New York Fire Dept. first responders who gave their lives on that fateful September 11th. 

Almost everyone got into the spirit.  Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart outdid his classic parody of Glenn Beck’s conspiracy theories in laughs at Osama bin Laden’s expense. I doubt they will be shown in prime time on Saudi and Pakistani TV. The Taliban probably are conjuring up “Daily Show” and Colbert fatwas

The Right is already chanting about how the “anything goes” use of torture ultimately did bin Laden in. Nailing bin Laden was ultimately the result of competent and determined collection and analysis of intelligence, and the bold application of the right assets at the right time, and in the right place. It is sadly laughable when House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) defends torture. King was a long-time sympathizer of the terrorist Irish Republican Army.

Will Osama bin Laden’s death rid the world of terrorism? The loss of bin Laden is leadership al Queda will not easily replace, but the threat remains.  A few decades ago we suffered the scourge of political terrorists.  The current terrorists “have religion.”  Come to think of it, I kinda miss those good old-fashioned “godless Commies.” Marx and Lenin never promised their “martyrs” scores of virgins, heavenly paradise, or Donald Rumsfeld as an eternal golf caddy.

“Mission Accomplished” For real this time.

By Stephen Smoot:

   Thank you to the military men who courageously risked all to fly into a compound, overcome malfunctions, and got the job done.  Thank you also to the men and women in U. S. intelligence, whichever agencies were involved, whose years of painstaking, grueling, and probably sometimes frustrating work, gave us such wonderful results.  We now are slowly gaining the understanding that some of the tactics that have been most disparaged over the years helped to give us trickles of information that led to this important coup.  Osama Bin Laden died this week at the hands of the United States military.  We sent a message to the world.  We never forget, we never stop, and we will prevail.

Does this mean that the war has ended?  We bagged our guy and dropped him in the ocean, so is it all done?  Unfortunately, no.  Bin Laden was not Hitler.  In World War II, if you killed Hitler after a certain point, the war probably would have ended fairly quickly.  Bin Laden at one point led the most formidable Islamic fundamentalist terror group in the world.  The War on Terror forced Al Qaeda to break down and reform along much more decentralized lines.  Bin Laden remained a symbol of their jihad against the West.  Experts still debate how much influence he had over the command and control structure of Al Qaeda in its development after American attacks.  Regardless, Bin Laden remained an influential and respected authority amongst some of the most evil and destructive men and women on

Earth.  That symbol until yesterday was used most to show the United States and the West as impotent against the power of this one man.

Bin Laden and those who followed him made war on the West for very simple reasons.  Islamic fundamentalists want to control.  In the name of their god, they want to completely direct the life and thoughts of the people, especially women and children.  Women especially must buckle under by covering themselves and avoiding education.  This is the law they wish to impose over the Middle East now and the rest of the world eventually.  Those who resist get mutilated or publicly executed.  The West offers something different to these people.  Some look at Westerners and want to have the material prosperity and live in the popular culture.  Others look deeper and appreciate the idea that each individual must choose his or her path in life and then shoulder responsibility for the choices thus made. Despite what some may believe, terrorist attacks on America were inevitable. It’s not what we do that they hate; it is who we are and what we stand for. They must attack us  to make us look weaker and less attractive to those people they want to control.

We have not changed.  We will not change.  We must continue to take the war to them until we know they have stopped.  Killing Bin Laden, as opposed to capturing him, was the right call for Obama to make.  We did not need a live target for demonstrations and terrorists; we needed a corpse.  Inevitably he will evolve into a martyr for some, especially since he died at a soldier’s hands.  However, the Islamic fundamentalist world loses the image of their desperado on the run, always one step ahead of the hated, but technologically superior Americans.  In any event, actual day to day operations will continue.  Also, someone will aspire to seize the leadership mantle vacated by Bin Laden.  Whoever it is will attempt something dramatic, probably in Europe.  Why there?  Their capacity to strike the United States is reduced, Europe is Western, and they might figure that retaliating against Europe for an American operation would drive a wedge between us and them.

The death of Bin Laden could also lead to an opportunity.  Certainly more than one candidate will seek to seize the reigns of influence.  We can almost count on a power struggle of some sort.  The best result could be a prolonged battle between several men struggling to fight their way to the top.  How wonderful would it be if Islamic fundamentalists could turn their resources and anger on each other and savagely ripped their own movement to shreds.  Well placed psychological operations could escalate an internal power struggle.  Then we can sit back and watch them do the work for us.

We still live in a dangerous world.  It remains part of our reality that a lone driver could set off a weapon of mass destruction in a major city and kill tens of thousands.  Or they could walk into a college football tailgate with a ball bearing bomb and kill or maim hundreds.  They’re not going to just take their ball and go home just because Bin Laden was killed.  We must remain vigilant and aggressive to keep them on the defensive.  That is the best way to secure ourselves as well as possible.