Bin Laden Is Dead; the Terrorist Threat Is Not

George W. Bush promised, cowboy style, that America would capture Osama bin Laden “dead or alive.” But it was his successor in the White House, Barack Obama, who succeeded in completing the task. In a classy way, the president announced: “The United States conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida, a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands.” Americans celebrated; Sept. 11 was avenged.

Nearly 10 years after the attacks on the Twin Towers, the al-Qaida leader was located and killed. Left behind were several thousand pieces of information to sift through and hundreds of false leads. Despite offering $25 million for his capture, bin Laden continued to evade the wounded superpower, finding refuge in what geopolitical scientists call AfPak — Afghanistan and Pakistan.

His escape humiliated America for a decade. Bush left the White House discredited in part for not being able to capture the mastermind behind Sept. 11. Obama authorized the mission without any guarantee that it would succeed. In addition, he has had to watch as the Taliban, old allies of bin Laden and Pakistan — itself an erratic nuclear power — continued to make advances.

Bin Laden already had his eyes set on America well before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He was behind the attacks on the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and was also behind the attempt to sink the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000. The CIA committed many mistakes in evaluating the al-Qaida threat, which means “the base” in Arabic, and the majority of Americans only cared about the Saudi exile when two planes struck the Twin Towers, another hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in open country in Pennsylvania, missing its target — perhaps the White House.

Almost 3,000 people died, and the world, frightened, prepared for a long battle against Islamic-inspired terrorism with military action (the invasion of Afghanistan), police operations (terrorist cells found in Europe), and strong security measures implemented for air travel.

Bin Laden is dead, but Islamic-inspired terrorism is not. The Saudi, son of a construction millionaire, was especially inspiring to many fanatical groups. They were convinced that the West and its allies personify evil and that the world would be better if we returned to a time where people were ruled by a caliphate, much like in the first centuries of Islam in the seventh century.

Bin Laden imitators have killed in Madrid, London and Bali. And they will do anything to continue murdering. No country is safe from this global threat. Four Portuguese citizens died on Sept. 11, another one in the Bali bombing in 2002, and another one last week in an attack in Marrakech. Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, the likely successor to bin Laden, spoke many times about recovering the Al-Andaluz — the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula.

The Islamic world is filled with dictators, and the social gap is immense. People feel that a glorious past does not guarantee them respect today from the rest of the world. Bin Laden, who was once sponsored by the Americans to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan, was able to convince many followers that his neo-caliph utopia was the solution.

But the recent revolts in the Arab world, especially in Tunisia and Egypt, have demonstrated that there is another way, and that the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, if they are allowed, will always choose to live in peace, liberty and prosperity rather than to follow a false prophet who promises a paradise filled with virgins for those who die for their cause — like the 19 suicide terrorists of Sept. 11.