Obama's Victory: Relief and Hope

The satisfaction of the president of the United States and the joy with which his fellow citizens greeted the death of Osama bin Laden is understandable. Barack Obama was able to do what his predecessor had unsuccessfully hoped and tried for many times. America did not want to only fight terrorism. It also wanted to strike the vile, avenge the dead and show that no one can challenge its power with impunity. The death of bin Laden does not give back her children, but it settles a score in her heart, in the biblical sense of justice, an important part of the country.

There will be political consequences as well. This result will aid President Obama’s electoral fortunes. American forces were able to vindicate some past failures and show their strength. America’s enemies know they can be hit even when precautions and the conspiracy of silence of the surroundings seem to guarantee maximum security.

The Abbottabad operation suggests other points as well. In the first place, it showed that Osama bin Laden was not hidden in a cave but in a flashy residence an hour from the Pakistani capital. He was in the heart of the country that was (or should have been) the principal ally of the United States in the fight against the Taliban and Islamic terrorism. After having honored the wisdom and efficacy of the American forces, someone should ask why the hunt for bin Laden lasted 10 years and how much of that time was due to the modest and reluctant collaboration of Pakistan.

In the second place, the leader killed in recent hours was not, and perhaps never was, the CEO of al-Qaida, Inc., a large multinational that managed different branches throughout the world and who moved the pieces on a global chess board. He was the founder of the company, the trademark holder, the prophet, the inspiration, the evil genius. But he was not the commander in chief. There are branches, but they are independent and use the brand to better recruit their followers and give global resonance to their endeavors. There is Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian doctor who has been the ideologue of the organization in recent years. There is Somali Islam, capable of keeping a country in a permanent state of anarchy. There is Anwar al-Awlaki, al-Qaida’s leader on the Arabian Peninsula, the most potentially explosive region in the Middle East. There are the Islamist guerrillas in Yemen. There is al-Qaida in the Maghreb, a pirate organization that uses the desert as its base and back ways for its raids. And there are the irregulars, the solitary terrorists, the aspiring martyrs. It could be that for many of these people, the death of Osama bin Laden is the spark to light their suicidal tendencies. It is even possible that many will refuse to believe he is dead and prefer to create a myth dear to the Shiites about the happenings at Abbottabad, about the hidden imam.

In the end, the most positive fact in the fight against Islamic terrorism is not the death of bin Laden. It is the appearance in Arabian town squares of a new people, made up of young people who don’t seem to trust Islam to have the answers to all their problems and, while still good Muslims, consider the vote more effective than the Quran in earthly things. They are the best enemies of al-Qaida.