The Victory Image

The term “victory image” entered public discourse after the second Lebanon war. During the war, so it turned out, the Ministry of Defense and commander ranks in the army were frantically trying to come up with an image to burn into the consciousness of both sides representing the indisputable victory of Israel. The situation got to the point that a parachute force was dispatched to make it to a certain building in Binat Jabel,* to raise the Israeli flag above it, to film the event, and withdraw.

But most agreed there was only one image that could calm the growing public frustration in the face of the continued and fruitless fighting: Hassan Nasrallah’s body being pulled from under the debris of his headquarters.

Barack Obama obtained that kind of victory image. Osama bin Laden, the world’s number one wanted terrorist, has been hunted down and killed, after a 10-year chase. Yesterday, many said the American Navy commandos killed a symbol, but global jihad still exists and is still dangerous. This is true — but the victory, the visuals of which were broadcast repeatedly yesterday all over the world, is deeper than that. In fact, bin Laden had lost long before he died.

The bin Laden vision of destruction was to reproduce the war against “infidels” in their own territories. Think about the world that we seemed to enter after September 11, 2001, and the large-scale terrorist attacks that followed it: Bali, Madrid, London.

The world, where advanced technologies and the liberal lifestyle of the West are used against it, enables a decentralized net of people and organizations, maintaining close contact on the ideological level — but loose, at the practical-operational level — to turn the daily lives of the first world into a hell.

The Satanic Vision Did Not Take Shape

Bin Laden did not need, according to this perception, to carry out large terror attacks through people directly under his control. It was enough for him to serve as an inspiration, connecting link and role model for zealots like himself — and the West would implode.

A decade later, the terror threat does exist; however, the satanic vision did not take shape. The West lives a normal life, while bin Laden and his people are chased and snared. The peril of terror is not over, but the world is fighting it and has found the way to move on without losing its values.

The Muslim world is not following bin Laden’s example and ideology, but is, in fact, undergoing turmoil, generated by Western ideas, like personal freedom and democracy. That is the victory. For that reason, the symbol embodied in the killing of Osama has such great power: Because with no real victory, its symbolic victory image will not endure.

It appears that the American operation, all the details of which are as yet unknown, was planned and executed in accordance with this understanding. Bin Laden was taken out by fighters who infiltrated his house, not by bombardment from the air. The reason for this is to minimize environmental damage, as much as possible, and to celebrate the triumph of the Western viewpoint, providing as much distinction as possible between the guilty and the innocent.

And, in order to show that it was not aircraft and missiles that defeated the terrorist but, instead, someone who looked at him directly, clearly identified him, and pulled the trigger. Soldiers in uniform, not covert agents with an invisible signature or pilots in a hermetic helmet.

A Tradition of Professionalism

Indeed, it stands to reason that the Americans had no intention of capturing bin Laden and bringing him to trial.

That would expose them to an endless series of terrorist attacks, attempts at bargaining (that would go unanswered but would cost human lives) and a media circus that would return a heroic dimension to his image. The performance appeared complete and precise, and the question, “Why didn’t they find him earlier?” will certainly find an answer in books and research works to be published in the future.

The chain of decisions, from the collection of intelligence through the implementation, and ending with president Obama’s measured speech — not fiery, yet filled with a sense of empowerment — is imbued with the professional tradition that we want to associate with the U.S. And more than that, we are reminded that the victory image is possible when war has a purpose, consensus and an objective that can be attained.

George W. Bush set off to the war in Afghanistan, a fair response to the terror attack, and essential for forcing al-Qaida to take a defensive position in which it continues to this day. He proceeded there, too, with determination that Obama has inherited from him, while differentiating between a war that seemed to him to be the right thing to do and one that should be ended as soon as possible.

The same Bush also dragged the U.S. into the war in Iraq on false claims; it had nothing to do with having the upper hand over world terror; it lacked a long-term plan, and in its entirety, was a craving for revenge and drive. Thus, the picture of victory in the downed statue of Saddam Hussein never achieved the effect like that of eliminating bin Laden.

The entities that call themselves the “global jihad,” except for the modus operandi of violence and terror, with no real relationship among them, will surely try to carry out terror attacks and relate them to vengeance for bin Laden’s death. Some of them, especially those in the North Africa, have a local power that threatens regimes.

But global jihad, in the meaning bin Laden intended, was struck a victorious blow, even before the American “Seals” sneaked into the compound in Pakistan. The death of bin Laden is only an emblem, a victory image. But this time, contrary to Iraq and Lebanon, there is a real victory behind it.

*location in Lebanon, referred to as the “Hezbollah capital”