Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the international terrorist network al Qaeda, has been killed in Pakistan by American Special Forces, bringing to an end a ten-year manhunt.
While Osama became terrorist number one for the West after the 9/11 incidents, he was seen by many radical Muslims around the world as the sole face of resistance against the United States. Born to a wealthy Saudi family in the construction business, Osama spent most of his life fighting against what he called the foreign occupation of the holy lands of Islam, and was killed in a firefight at 1 a.m. Monday. He fought the Soviets in Afghanistan with direct and indirect assistance from the United States, but turned against the latter after American troops landed in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf Wars.
Since then Bin Laden’s al Qaeda has attacked the American embassy in Kenya, the US warship USS Cole off Yemen and in 2001 shook the United States and the world by ramming commercial airliners into the World Trade Centre twin towers in New York and the Pentagon, killing about 3,000 civilians.
It’s too early to assess what impact Osama’s death will have on international terrorism, particularly on al Qaeda, but his killing at the hands of the Americans is certainly a huge psychological blow to the terrorist network around the world. Though he was said to be less and less involved at the operational levels of al Qaeda or in tactical decision-making, he was, nonetheless, an inspirational figure for many youths in the Muslim world turning jihadist. His death will also embolden the American military in its fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
But this is certainly not the end of al Qaeda or of hundreds of terrorist networks that have mushroomed since bin Laden declared war on the United States in 1998. Many of these loose but deadly terrorist networks are rooted in their home countries and have become self-reliant in terms of finances and recruitments. It’s also altogether plausible that some of these networks will try to mount attacks against the US in revenge for Osama’s death sooner rather than later.
Bin Laden’s death will be a huge boost to President Barak Obama, whose approval rating has been dipping recently, mainly over his handling of the US economy. And his national security credentials have never been strong— Republicans have routinely portrayed him as a weak leader on national security and foreign policy. Osama’s killing will bolster his image as commander-in-chief. After all, he has now done what President George W. Bush failed to do during the last seven years of his presidency. President Obama alone did not kill Osama, nor is he trying to take all the credit for it, but this will certainly be a feather in his cap as he goes around the country campaigning for his second presidential bid in the 2012 election. The killing is, on the other hand, a huge embarrassment for Pakistan, which always maintained that Osama wasn’t hiding in the country and it was doing everything possible in the fight against terror. That bin Laden was living in a huge mansion, close to a Pakistani military training camp in a city outside Islamabad, and that American Special Forces killed him without even informing the Pakistani government or military will leave Pakistan in an awkward and embarrassing position.