On Bin Laden’s Death

It’s possible some radicals will lash out at us, but it’s not like they’ve been holding back until now. I suspect we get hit with whatever they have as soon as they have it already.

Word of bin Laden’s death reached me through AOL IM. I am the last person using that, right? My friend Bob (next to the last person on IM) was the sender.

10:49 PM bob: bin laden dead

It had 100% of the information, but came off as a non sequitur to me.

10:50 PM me: what?

There’s a hard hitting follow-up!

Here’s the sad truth in all this. It hardly makes any difference at all.

Sure you want to bring the perp to justice, but it’s difficult to believe bin Laden still had any kind of day-to-day power. His number one job was not being found. Running a movement is the antithesis of how he had to live.

It’s possible some radicals will lash out at us, but it’s not like they’ve been holding back until now. I suspect we get hit with whatever they have as soon as they have it already.

These were not good times for bin Laden. It must have upset him to see the popular uprisings like Egypt and Libya that have marked this spring. The protesters were secular, not religious. They wanted democracy and modernity not a return to a way of life more suitable for the seventh century.

Maybe someday terrorism will go away. Unfortunately the threat of terrorism never will.

A few years ago a friend showed me a photo of her brother. Behind him were rugged hills that match the landscape of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Though of Irish descent he wore a long dark beard and the traditional clothing of the region.

No one knew what her brother did there. She certainly didn’t. We all had our suspicions.

I sent her a text message tonight: “Tell your brother thanks.”