The United States cheers over the death of Osama Bin Laden. After the U.S. raid in Pakistan that brought about the death of one of the most well known faces in the world, the United States has issued various statements that celebrate such an achievement. With the U.S. President Barack Obama referring to the event as "...a good day for America," others around the country have celebrated by taking to the streets.
While there is reason for Americans to celebrate, it has also been mentioned that the possibility of retaliation should be considered. Osama Bin Laden was the most prominently known figure of Al-Qaeda. As such, he died with his beliefs firmly intact. Such a death could result in his followers declaring him to be a martyr. If such is the case, martyrs have a tendency of gathering followers and encouraging others to join the cause. This would lead to an increase in membership and action. CIA director Leon Panetta confirms this by stating that "(Al-Qaeda) would 'almost certainly' try to avenge the death of Bin Laden."
Another interesting piece of the information regarding Bin Laden's death was found in his location of Pakistan. While Pakistan has in fact cooperated with the United States over the years, U.S. counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan acknowledged that "it was "inconceivable" that Bin Laden did not have a support system in Pakistan." Furthermore, he added that "we're going to pursue all leads to find out exactly what type of support system and benefactors that Bin Laden might have had." Such a statement implies that U.S. action to uncover a hidden circuit of criminals in Pakistan is only beginning. And with time, it will be seen how far such action will go.
With no one in the United States complaining about having one less known terrorist in existence, there is also the other side of the picture where Bin Laden's death could serve the interests of the United States. If analysts, politicians, military and intelligence personnel are all looking for ways to benefit from the death, then it is not out of the question to consider the possibility that Bin Laden's death could have a very strong effect on America's foreign policy in the Middle East and Pakistan in Particular.
10 comments:
The death of Osama Bin Laden, while possibly serving as a source of comfort for 9/11 victims' families, definitely does bring about some source for fear to many in our country. Retaliation is extremely likely by the remaining members of Al-Qaeda and similar terrorist groups. I think that America should think twice about celebrating this particular leader's death, due to the fact that often we criticize such groups as these for displaying similar outbursts.
I do feel happy that the man responsible for 9/11 is finally found and dead; however, I must agree that this does not mean that the war on terror is finally over. This will just entice Al-Qaeda to retaliate. I had read an interview online with Bin Laden's son, which frightens me there is worse to come. Here is the article if anyone wants to read it.
http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-osama-killed-bin-laden-afghanistan-pakistan/20110502.htm
I'm interested to see if any of the Middle Eastern countries will have slightly better opinions of us since the majority of them hated that man as well. I'm willing to bet that there will be harsh retaliation for his death, and I'm hoping that the Western world is prepared for such actions. This isn't something that people will forget in a week; those who supported him will potentially be enraged, and lash out.
We'll see, I suppose. At this point in the game, almost anything is possible.
A decision to release pictures of Osama is somewhat unintelligent in my opinion, especially this early on. We must show restraint during this period as we are unsure how the rest of the world will react. Just because we killed Osama Bin Laden, does not mean that Al Qaeda and other followers of Bin Laden’s ideology will not retaliate. I fear that releasing these pictures to the public will spur retaliatory measures from supporters of Bin laden, similar to the after effect of the Dutch Muhammad cartoon scandal. Glenn Beck for once made a surprisingly intelligent remark on his broadcast (5/3/2011) in regards to releasing these pictures. He basically stated that releasing pictures of Osama would have similar effect to his followers as it would have if the US government released pictures of a deceased President Kennedy two days after his assassination. The American public would have been outraged in its disrespect for Kennedy. I am by no means relating Kennedy to Osama Bin laden, but that reason and logic would say that this would have the same affect. The death of Osama is a great victory for the United States and all of those who were killed in 9/11, but we also want to prevent any other 9/11 at the same time.
I feel like that this is most assurdely an accmomplishment for the US but i feel that there may be some retaliations. If he is declared to be a martyr, nothing positive will come out.
Are the troops on the way home? are they on planes and ships coming home for good yet? what is the hold up? The one and only person that we were after is now dead. Good job I don't need to see the pictures of his face blown off, for once america please relax about seeing violence. Conspiracy theories can go down the rabbit hole all they want but the fact is Bin Laden is dead. Celebrations in the street are unnessary unless they are excited about the troops coming home. pakistan had better not make an issue about going into their country to get him either because as far as I am concerned they have been harboring terrorists knowlingly for years. If anything they should be facing restrictions economically.
Osama Bin Laden's death shouldn't necessarily be celebrated, while it is comfort to the 9/11 victims families it is also a potential tool in which terrorists will use to breed more terrorists. In our war on terror we have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civillians, bombed entire cities indiscriminately all of this for one man. This theory that killing one Osama will kill them all is just downright stupidity. Killing one Osama will create more individuals who would like to step up to the plate, those who believe in the cause and fulfill what was to be done will only triple in number. How about looking at the root of the problem for once America, they don't want us on their sovereign territory.
What most people don't realize is the nature of an insurgency. DABENNETT hit the nail on the head in this aspect, in that retaliation will be an eventual response. Terrorist groups and insurgencies differ from other forms of military groups in that if you cut off the head of the organization they simply replace it. Retaliation in the form of an attack like 9/11 is unlikely in the next year or so however. Considering the level of alert that our country is still on, that type of retaliation is increasingly hard to follow through with, as well as the fact that those attacks take a long time to plan and execute. I'm more worried about the possible retaliation against US soldiers, as this could rally more people to join Al-Qaeda, or possibly renew the fervor that current terrorists fight with because let's face it: Osama bin Laden is now a martyr.
The death of Bin Laden most definitely will cause further tension in the Middle East. Not only did we go inside of Pakistan to kill him, but we have made a martyr out of him. Many of our wester allis may have been very pleased about his death, but Al-Qaeda is still strong in areas of the Middle East, including western Africa. We must not glorify his death. Even 9/11 victims were not joyous when they heard the news because his death could not bring back their loved ones, nor could stop future attacks from happening. Bin Laden was one man with a following of ultraconservative religious extremists.
It is a positive thing for the United States that Osama Bin Laden is dead because of the fact that it has been ten years now since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. This has been a long time coming and although we may see this as justice finally being served, this is true although it is certainly not the end of the war at least not for awhile.
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