As we mark the death of Osama Bin Laden, America is forced to face a new world
A Turning Point?
Article by James Fanous
For most of the past decade, as America waged its War on Terror in the Middle East, the thought of finding the
culprit of the 9/11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden, seemed to fade with each passing day. After years of waiting,
Americans had grown more and more hopeless to the dream of delivering justice to the most wanted criminal in
American history.
Even as recently as Saturday night at the Annual White House Correspondents Dinner, featured speaker Seth
Meyers made a joke about how Bin Laden was successfully hiding from America. When the joke was made, the
President could be seen as laughing while looking over to his outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Nothing was made of the look that night, but it turns out that the President and his defense team were 24 hours
away from finally finishing the job of finding Bin Laden that started almost ten years ago.
Now he’s gone. After years of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, looking to find and stop as many terrorists as
possible halfway around the world, the principle reason for our presence in the region is no more, taken down
in a 40 minute raid by Navy Seal Team Six in Abbottabad, Pakistan. We celebrate this occasion, as it is the
justice that Bin Laden deserved to receive for all of the innocent lives he proudly took on 9/11 and many other
attacks throughout the world.
However, his passing is not the endgame. Far from it. The death of Bin Laden only raises more questions about
our future. How did he stay hidden this whole time while living not in a dark cave, but a three-story villa in a
suburban part of Pakistan? How did Pakistan not know he was there? Was it incompetence, ignorance, or
worse? How will the rest of the radical extremists who conduct terrorism, already incensed by the very
existence of America, react to the death of their leader by our hands?
One thing is clear; the War on Terror is not over.
This fact poses challenges to the American Public that most people are simply not prepared to handle yet. Bin
Laden went from the most impossible man to find in the world to captured and killed in the blink of an eye. The
American public was still celebrating his death when the questions about Pakistan and the future of the Middle
East began to emerge.
Keep in mind that the Arab world itself is dramatically different today than even a year ago. The Arab Spring of
revolution against tyrannical rule has swept across the region in a way that has never been seen before. For
instance, America had the assistance of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, who despite the oppression he mounted on his
own citizens that led to his ouster, was an unwavering ally of the US. His departure leaves a vacuum in Egypt,
with elements like the Muslim Brotherhood that look to potentially compromise the peace with Israel and the
United States gaining momentum. Despite the peaceful democratic revolution that took place in February,
America must be on the lookout to see if the Egyptian revolt deteriorates into an anti-American movement
similar to Iran in the late 1970s.
Then there is Egypt’s next door neighbor, Libya, where Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has entered week 12 of
defying the world by continuing the mass slaughter and destruction of his own people. Despite NATO forces
attacking his compound and military strongholds, Gaddafi reacts to each attack with further cruelty, preventing
migrant workers from leaving the war torn nation and even using cluster bombs, banned by much of the
international community, on innocent civilians. And then we have the uprisings in Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain,
where the governments have responded to demands of democratic reform with unparalleled assaults on the
people, using murder and barbarism to force the people to end their cries for change.
The death of Bin Laden is the end of a dark chapter, but his death unfortunately does not bring the Middle East
dilemma to an end the way we hoped it would ten years ago. We must now come to accept the terrible reality
that the world has gotten harder, and that Bin Laden’s passing only highlights the new challenges that have
emerged in a region that was already problematic.
But Americans have reason to be optimistic despite the mounting perplexities we face. Our military was able to
bring an end to the most wanted man in the world, using only a handful of our best soldiers. We may struggle
to come to grips with the problems we face, but it is our armed forces that have shown us time and time again
that we can accomplish any mission we set out to achieve.
We celebrate today the finding of Bin Laden, but our defense team has achieved thousands of victories without
our recognition. We have captured thousands from Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other terrorist organizations, and
have thwarted hundreds of new attacks on our country. We captured Khalid Sheik Muhammad, the mastermind
of the 9/11 attacks, and we were able to use intelligence we learned from his capture to find hundreds of other
terrorists, including Bin Laden.
We may be in the midst of our greatest challenge, but this weekend’s capture shows that we are ready for
whatever else the world wants to throw at us.
Related Stories to the Capture of Osama Bin Laden:
Obama Gives NYC its Moment of Justice on Bin Laden
The Inside Story of How Members of Seal Team Six Are Trained from a Former Member
In Bin Laden’s Compound, Seals’ All-Star Team
5 State of the Art Military Technologies That Helped Take Out Bin Laden
U.S. agents race to exploit data from Bin Laden raid
culprit of the 9/11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden, seemed to fade with each passing day. After years of waiting,
Americans had grown more and more hopeless to the dream of delivering justice to the most wanted criminal in
American history.
Even as recently as Saturday night at the Annual White House Correspondents Dinner, featured speaker Seth
Meyers made a joke about how Bin Laden was successfully hiding from America. When the joke was made, the
President could be seen as laughing while looking over to his outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Nothing was made of the look that night, but it turns out that the President and his defense team were 24 hours
away from finally finishing the job of finding Bin Laden that started almost ten years ago.
Now he’s gone. After years of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, looking to find and stop as many terrorists as
possible halfway around the world, the principle reason for our presence in the region is no more, taken down
in a 40 minute raid by Navy Seal Team Six in Abbottabad, Pakistan. We celebrate this occasion, as it is the
justice that Bin Laden deserved to receive for all of the innocent lives he proudly took on 9/11 and many other
attacks throughout the world.
However, his passing is not the endgame. Far from it. The death of Bin Laden only raises more questions about
our future. How did he stay hidden this whole time while living not in a dark cave, but a three-story villa in a
suburban part of Pakistan? How did Pakistan not know he was there? Was it incompetence, ignorance, or
worse? How will the rest of the radical extremists who conduct terrorism, already incensed by the very
existence of America, react to the death of their leader by our hands?
One thing is clear; the War on Terror is not over.
This fact poses challenges to the American Public that most people are simply not prepared to handle yet. Bin
Laden went from the most impossible man to find in the world to captured and killed in the blink of an eye. The
American public was still celebrating his death when the questions about Pakistan and the future of the Middle
East began to emerge.
Keep in mind that the Arab world itself is dramatically different today than even a year ago. The Arab Spring of
revolution against tyrannical rule has swept across the region in a way that has never been seen before. For
instance, America had the assistance of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, who despite the oppression he mounted on his
own citizens that led to his ouster, was an unwavering ally of the US. His departure leaves a vacuum in Egypt,
with elements like the Muslim Brotherhood that look to potentially compromise the peace with Israel and the
United States gaining momentum. Despite the peaceful democratic revolution that took place in February,
America must be on the lookout to see if the Egyptian revolt deteriorates into an anti-American movement
similar to Iran in the late 1970s.
Then there is Egypt’s next door neighbor, Libya, where Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has entered week 12 of
defying the world by continuing the mass slaughter and destruction of his own people. Despite NATO forces
attacking his compound and military strongholds, Gaddafi reacts to each attack with further cruelty, preventing
migrant workers from leaving the war torn nation and even using cluster bombs, banned by much of the
international community, on innocent civilians. And then we have the uprisings in Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain,
where the governments have responded to demands of democratic reform with unparalleled assaults on the
people, using murder and barbarism to force the people to end their cries for change.
The death of Bin Laden is the end of a dark chapter, but his death unfortunately does not bring the Middle East
dilemma to an end the way we hoped it would ten years ago. We must now come to accept the terrible reality
that the world has gotten harder, and that Bin Laden’s passing only highlights the new challenges that have
emerged in a region that was already problematic.
But Americans have reason to be optimistic despite the mounting perplexities we face. Our military was able to
bring an end to the most wanted man in the world, using only a handful of our best soldiers. We may struggle
to come to grips with the problems we face, but it is our armed forces that have shown us time and time again
that we can accomplish any mission we set out to achieve.
We celebrate today the finding of Bin Laden, but our defense team has achieved thousands of victories without
our recognition. We have captured thousands from Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other terrorist organizations, and
have thwarted hundreds of new attacks on our country. We captured Khalid Sheik Muhammad, the mastermind
of the 9/11 attacks, and we were able to use intelligence we learned from his capture to find hundreds of other
terrorists, including Bin Laden.
We may be in the midst of our greatest challenge, but this weekend’s capture shows that we are ready for
whatever else the world wants to throw at us.
Related Stories to the Capture of Osama Bin Laden:
Obama Gives NYC its Moment of Justice on Bin Laden
The Inside Story of How Members of Seal Team Six Are Trained from a Former Member
In Bin Laden’s Compound, Seals’ All-Star Team
5 State of the Art Military Technologies That Helped Take Out Bin Laden
U.S. agents race to exploit data from Bin Laden raid
5/7/2011
Listen Instantly to Veterans Now!