Bin Laden Is Dead. Mission Accomplished?

Written by a web surfer, and re-tweeted by movie maker Michael Moore: “10 years, 2 wars, 919,967 deaths, and $1,188,263,000,000 later, we managed to kill one person.” Objectively, it’s a little bit more than just that. Although (purposely?) announced on the 66th anniversary of the announcement of Adolf Hitler’s death, the assassination of Osama bin Laden does not have a comparable meaning. al-Qaida is not a conventional and centralized war machine on the brink of collapse like the Nazi army was on May 1, 1945. Perhaps it originates from the more recent May 1, 2003, when Bush, Jr. announced his “mission accomplished” in Iraq, when the problem was just beginning.

According to the United States, Bin Laden was in a comfortable 3-floor building, enclosed by walls four to five meters high (approximately 13-16 feet) next to an elite college and two blocks away from a police station in the tourist city of Abbottabad, 116 kilometers (approximately 72 miles) or two hours by highway from the capital, Islamabad (around 55 kilometers [34 miles] directly). In terms of Brazil, it would be like being in a mansion in one of the central neighborhoods of Campos do Jordao. Or better yet, in Resende, since the site is also a short walk from one of the primary military academies in Pakistan.

Sohab Athair, a Twitter user who describes himself as “an IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops,” covered the operation from the beginning, without knowing exactly what was happening and about two kilometers (approximately a mile and a quarter) from the site: “Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1am (is a rare event).” He heard an explosion and gunshots, and the few people awake at that hour said that at least one of the helicopters was not Pakistani. He understood that it was a complicated situation, but thought that it was a helicopter crash which was initially published by the Pakistani media. He realized the truth five hours later, when Barack Obama went on TV to triumphantly announce the death of the terrorist leader. “There goes the neighborhood,” wrote Athair wistfully.

The president of the U.S. gave a carefully balanced speech in his announcement as well as making a very well put together spectacle. Like playing a Hollywood hero, he began with “I planned, commanded, and determined the death of Osama bin Laden” and concluded with “We are always going to defend justice and liberty. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.”* He turned from the camera and walked majestically across the red carpet to the end of the hall, like a cowboy who rides off into the sunset while the final credits play.

Bush, Jr. had a similar moment upon landing a fighter jet on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and giving his victory speech about Saddam Hussein, also entitled to heroic and Hollywoodian takes. He succeeded in fooling the public enough to be reelected in 2005, but his popularity collapsed immediately and he crept wistfully to the end of his second term. Will Obama repeat the same show?

Anyway, in the short run and from the point of view of U.S. internal politics it was a master blow. Soon after reducing his Republican rival Donald Trump and his obsession with the president’s birth certificate, Obama posed as a war hero and able commander. In 40 minutes, with a squad of Navy Special Forces, he achieved the goal that Bush, Jr. promised to target during two terms, mobilizing all military equipment and U.S. intelligence to that end and involving the country in two useless and catastrophic wars for its economy and international relations.

Yes, we can? Obama cannot fulfill his promises of social, environmental and economic reform for which he was elected and he can’t even close the Guantanamo prison, but at least he fulfilled a promise of the previous administration. It could be just enough to guarantee his re-election, given the weakness of the Republican candidates, but it’s improbable that the aura of victory will be extended over the rest of the Democratic Party in the legislative elections, unless the president can capitalize on this deed to motivate public opinion in favor of democratic social and economic policy and bury tea party demagoguery, which until now he hasn’t shown he’s willing to do.

From the international point of view and from the actual battlefield, it’s rather unlikely that Bin Laden’s death changes the game. His personal importance has always been very exaggerated by a media made nervous by villains. The same with al-Qaida, just one aspect of Islamic fundamentalism that, prior to this organization in particular, was something much wider and will not cease to exist if the conditions that made it influential among the chastened Muslim masses do not change. The way in which he was killed is enough to demonstrate that the issue is much more extensive. Bin Laden certainly could not have lived years in an upper middle class urban center without the total complicity of the Pakistani Armed Forces and their intelligence services.

*Note: while translated correctly, we have been unable to verify these exact quotes.