Obama's Great Moment

The legend lasted a long time. For a man like Osama bin Laden, surviving for ten years — after ordering the attacks that brought the United States to its knees and becoming the principal cause for the launching of two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as another global war on terrorism and hundreds of thousands of deaths — is a very long time. Yesterday the legend finally fell dead. Since last night, the question that surrounds all the world’s intelligence centers is why he fell now and not earlier. He could have been located when the British commandos had him surrounded in the mountains of Tora Bora in December 2001; when some of his communications were intercepted; when his subordinates fell; when they arrested the mastermind of 9/11, Sheik Mohammed, in Rawalpindi; or when the unmanned drones raked over every inch of the mountains.

Perhaps our answer is that because too much time had already passed and even the most disciplined, ascetic and stoic man — like it is said bin Laden was — can slip up. Ten years of successful escapes could have made anybody confident — even enough to abandon the most secure refuge in the caves high in the mountains and return to “civilization,” like this home in Abottabad, the “City of Schools,” in a valley where his followers had been defeated by the Pakistani army nearly two years before. Obama said last night that they had the first sign that bin Laden was very close by last August, and a week ago he was informed that bin Laden was surrounded. Evidently this time, the commandos did not want to commit the same error that had been made on other occasions. They took a long time to be very sure that he could not escape from them yet again. It was difficult for them to be able to capture bin Laden alive. He never let go of his Kalashnikov, his pistol or Uzi. Surely he was surrounded by a group of his best men, small in number but trained as well as or better than any Western commando. This is an enormous triumph for President Barack Obama. He made the announcement with the poise and bearing of a winner.

It was the moment George W. Bush always wanted but was never able to achieve. Last night he had to watch it on TV at home in Texas. Obama has something to show for himself in the re-election campaign after being unable to fulfill his campaign promise to close Guantánamo and with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq still continuing under his watch. While bin Laden has passed on into the dark history of terrorism, it is clear that his organization, al-Qaida, will be around for a long time. There are still radicalized men ready and willing to martyr themselves, and there is still a figure that could emerge as bin Laden’s real successor: the Libyan Abu Yahya al-Libi, one of his subordinates and the last chief of operations. It would not be a shock to anyone if al-Qaida or one of its affiliates now attempts to carry out some sort of attack to avenge the death of the man who led it for nearly two decades.