How Important is Bin Laden's Death?

The last few days there has been quite a bit of jubilation over Bin Laden's death. But how important is it? We find it interesting that the American media has avoided this question and instead focused on the tactical side of the raid.

Robert Fisk makes an excellent point that Al Qaeda was defeated by millions of Muslims as part of the Arab Awakening (Tunesia, Egypt) and still fighting on in places such as Syria and Lybia. Fisk points out that Al Qaeda was overtaken by the events. Watch.

Spiegel Online has an interesting article, positing that the death of Bin Laden comes 10 years too late. Read more. The author argues that America is not the same country is was before the 9/11.

The Guardian published an article where the author argues that Bin Laden's strategy, to suck the USA into major wars throughout the Islamic world, has worked. Read more.

Apparently the estimated total financial and human cost of the hunt for Bin Laden is valued at over 3 trillion dollars. Read more here and here

Juan Cole reports that the Taliban are fleeing their stronghold in Qunduz and that his death has been a real blow to their morale. here. One short term outcome is that the Taliban, freed from their pledge of hospitality, may sever ties with Al Qaeda (the Taliban were always a local movement and not a global network). If so, this would render a huge blow to Al Qaeda in South Asia.

The Dalai Lama discussed the death of Bin Laden. He said: "whether in some situation ensuring justice is more important than being compassionate to the perpetrator of a crime. It referred to the news of the death of Osama Bin Laden and the celebrations of it by some, and asked where compassion fit in with this and ethics. In his response, His Holiness emphasized the need to find a distinction between the action and the actor. He said in the case of Bin Laden, his action was of course destructive and the September 11 events killed thousands of people. So his action must be brought to justice, His Holiness said. But with the actor we must have compassion and a sense of concern, he added. His Holiness said therefore the counter measure, no matter what form it takes, has to be compassionate action. His Holiness referred to the basis of the practice of forgiveness saying that it, however, did not mean that one should forget what has been done." Learn more