Obama vs. Osama

With only one letter different there was bound to be an Osama vs. Obama conflict. It seems almost fitting that the "warmongering" president wasn't able to catch him, but the new conciliatory, Islam-friendly president was.

Now what?

For some radicals out there, bin Laden is now a martyr - all the more reason to fight against the west.

For others, he is not really dead. The US never release photos, so it might not have happened. The real Osama is still alive. They may even claim the US is just using the supposed "raid" as a cover up for the deaths of some innocents. (However, it is difficult to see what tactical advantage the US would have of planting a story like that now - perhaps close to an election you could see it, but now it would be all but forgotten.)

To some, they may hear the story of his "opulent" and decide that he was not the best leader. This may lead some to seek a more conciliatory arrangement with the west, while others may see him as not going far enough in  his extremism, thus begging a more belligerent stance.


And then there is the whole Pakistan thing. These Navy Seals were, after all, conducting a raid on Pakistani soil. They get a black eye from everyone - the west thinks they are slack for letting the terrorist mastermind live there. The "anti-west" are upset that they let the US conduct the operation there.

What will happen?  Who knows. However, with the underlying unrest in the middle east, there is likely to be abundant change. Unfortunately, the change will probably not be what the United States would like to see. Sure, they may see democracies. However, democracies in the middle east tend to not vote for the people that the US likes. (Look at how the west sponsored the overthrow of the Iranian democracy.) 

Popular governments may actually enact policies to utilize the oil riches for long-term benefit, rather than let a few run off with immense wealth.  They could decide that the Arab world will resume the intellectual pedestal that it held a millennium ago, proving a conservative religion can provide a better base for advanced intellectual inquiry. Or they could just let a new despot come in to power.

Perhaps the one thing that the bin Laden action did prove is that the US military is capable of carrying out covert assassination plots. This should give any future terrorist mastermind pause before releasing his face on videos.