bin Laden's death and the future of terrorism

Sunday, 01 May 2011 23:21

bin Laden's death and the future of terrorism

Written by Craig Cohen

Radio Smart Talk for Monday, May 2nd, 2011:

Nine years and eight months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, we learned the stunning news late Sunday night: Osama bin Laden has been killed.

As President Obama prepared to address the nation, making the official announcement, an impromptu crowd gathered outside the White House gates and sang the national anthem. Fans at the Philadelphia Phillies game chanted "U.S.A! U.S.A!" And similar reactions, actual and virtual (via social media), sprang up elsewhere across the country, and around the globe.

President Obama began his address by remarking on the tragic loss America felt on September 11th, 2001, of "nearly three thousand citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts." He then noted that al Qaeda, led by Osama bin laden had declared "open war" on the United States. "The American people did not choose this fight - it came to our shores," the President said. "After nearly ten years of service, struggle, and sacrifice, we know the costs of war...yet as a country we will never tolerate our security being threatened."

The President said of bin Laden's demise: "Justice has been done."

What does this news mean for all of us? For the future of U.S. foreign policy? For troops overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere? For that matter, what future threats might we face, whether from al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, now that bin Laden is dead?

We'll discuss the impact of Sunday night's announcement, and seek out your reactions. Please post your comments below.

VIDEO: President Obama announces Osama Bin Laden Killed in Pakistan http://ow.ly/4KUMg

LISTEN TO PROGRAM:

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# Craig Cohen 2011-05-02 00:01

What are you thinking in the immediate minutes and hours after this announcement? Share your thoughts here, and I'll share them on the air Monday morning at 9.

- Craig

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# AJ Gardeaux 2011-05-02 00:11

While the death of Bin Laden is immediately cathartic for so many, I am not reassured that it will make a positive difference. I think there will be backlash and I'm sure the very public elation of many Americans is not going to help the situation.

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# Debbie 2011-05-02 00:15

I think we all know that there will always be people who are so filled with hate but as far as I am concerned, tonight, I am glad that there is one less of them.

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# Audrey 2011-05-02 00:47

Quoting AJ Gardeaux:

While the death of Bin Laden is immediately cathartic for so many, I am not reassured that it will make a positive difference. I think there will be backlash and I'm sure the very public elation of many Americans is not going to help the situation.

Good point! I feel as though a lot of Americans are seeing Bin Laden's death as an indicator of closure. This really might be a kick towards things heating up more.

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# Dave Manley 2011-05-02 07:21

I guess it's a good thing. We have spent trillions of dollars to fight terrorism but now we can't afford to educate our children. I'm not sure one persons death, no matter how deserving, is worth the financial impact on our future generations.

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# Mal Fuller 2011-05-02 08:05

It is time for somber reflection and not elation.

We need to remember and honor those who died on 9/11, those of all nations who have died in response to 9/11, and especially the 40 Heroes of Flight 93.

In the last 35 minutes of their lives the Heroes of Flight 93: learned the nation was under attack; realized they would die if they did nothing; decided on a plan of action and voted on the plan; armed themselves with what they could (including hot water from the galley); and held off their action until over a rural area to avoid further death and destruction. Then they looked evil in the eye and they stopped it.

They stopped it while the nation's airspace shut down, as the south tower collapsed, and when the Pentagon burned.

It remains to us to stop this evil. The conflict will continue until all nations figure out how to stop it. It may well not end in my lifetime nor in my children's, but I believe it will end. I see no other option.

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# Lisa 2011-05-02 09:25

Ostensibly bin Laden was buried at sea to meet the Muslim requirements of a timely burial. I cannot help but wonder if it would not have been better, although not religiously correct, to have kept his body so that Arab allies could have positively identified his body. There will always now be room for consipiracy theory doubts as to whether they actually got bin Laden or not. It would have been much better overall to have captured him alive and let him rot in jail rather than to have "martyred" him as his followers are most surely going to claim.

There is no closure here for me. My young daughter asked if this meant that she was now safe from terrorism. Sadly, I had to tell her no.

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# Jonathan Baker 2011-05-02 09:43

I suppose this explains why William and Kate had to put their honeymoon on hold

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# robin 2011-05-02 09:50

He's gone, it's a very good thing!
The imperfect manner, that we violated Pakistani sovereignty, that we killed him rather than arrest him, that we celebrate a death, the fear we may have martyred him - all that aside this is a good day.
This was not a broad-based, principle- based democratic movement.
This was a cult of personality not unlike the Soviet Union that could not survive it's creators and stand on it's own.
Contrast it to our system surviving it's founders.

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# roni 2011-05-02 09:53

What struck me about the crowds around the White House was the age of the people. I'm wondering what we know about the impact 9/11 had on the twenty-somethings in this country that would create so much jubilation at Bin Laden's death.

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# text message # 1 2011-05-02 10:05

I have mixed feelings. It took 10 years to get bin Laden! 10 years!

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# Jo 2011-05-02 10:11

Whoever came up with the idea to "bury" bin Laden's body at sea, which might seem like a small decision but is actually a huge one, is a genius. Of course, ALL involved in the planning and execution of Sunday's mission are heroes and smart, smart people.

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# Daniel 2011-05-02 10:12

this smacks of a political move so that Obama can claim that he did what Bush was unable to do.

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# Teri Timm 2011-05-02 10:18

I understand the concern over the celebration of Bin Laden's death however I do not think that you can compare this with the the celebrations in Arab countries over 9/11. The many people killed in 9/11 were innocent civilians and Bin Laden is a murderer responsible for their deaths. Bin Laden's death will probably save many more lives. The young people celebrating are impacted because many of our soldiers are young adults and even teens.

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# Jeannie Spangenberg 2011-05-02 11:50

Is the reward offered the world by President Bush in office for information leading to the capture or death of Bin Laden still going to be paid out? Is/are they Pakistanian(s)o r who? If yes, when?

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# Robert Colgan 2011-05-02 11:56

Greatest military on earth took 10 years to find and kill one man....??

Political theater...right out of Orwell's 1984. The face of Emmanuel Goldstein---the Two Minute Hate.

The US rationalization for its hegemony in the Mideast was to find Bin Laden.

Well, good.

Now the US people can leave.

My wife just shook her head when she heard how celebratory this news is:
"Don't they know what they are doing to the thoughts of children?" she asked.

I said they do.
They are grooming them.

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# Roger Ford 2011-05-03 13:08

Finding and killing Bin Laden was a political necessity. That said, it was also an act of retribution, and there was nothing particularly noble or noteworthy about it. As a nation we have devoted a great deal of energy, blood, expertise, intelligence, wealth, and whatever moral standards we can claim to this effort. We have become embroiled in multiple wars,at least one of which cannot be clearly linked to finding Bin Laden or stopping his group, and we have embraced torture as a means of questioning prisoners, not all of whom were guilty of war crimes.

It is time to turn our attention to efforts that make America worth defending: establishing honesty in government, and especially helping our best and brightest youth to understand that one can serve America as an honest lawmaker, teacher, doctor, or engineer - for the sheer love of the work and our people - as a worthwhile alternative to carrying a gun and waging war.

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# Bonnie 2011-05-04 10:08

I find it interesting that some of the same people who are critizing the celebrations of the killing/death of UBL support the use of torture (or EIT as they like to make it sound less horrible)!

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# Edy P. Pierre 2011-05-04 11:22

I don't think many people really understand the dire conditions of the world we are living with. Humanity has been on a path of social and moral decline for centuries. It seems evident that its approaching a point of no return.Both deaths of thousands of innocents people at 9/11, and the celebration around the death, is just another chapter in our social darkness. We have been celebrating death for a long time now. Family of victim of crime have been given front row seats during the exection of covicted criminals. The question we should be asking ourselves is: what do these decisions we are making today will mean for the next generations to come. I will suggest a word of wisdom: the future has no friend, none whatsoever. Often, when it arrived, its always acompanies with great pain and sorrows to whomevere stand in its paths. The world is moving toward a darkest hours,evident by diabolical forces pushing the world toward more, and more evil in all of its ways.

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# PR Guy 2011-05-05 05:43

Wow. Fantastic discussion (everything that a local radio talk show can uniqely offer in helping listeners come to terms with a difficult subject).
While I want to remain engulfed in the narrative that the "war" is over and that the bad guy has lost, I am troubled by the question of cost and the lasting legacy of this bin Laden/Afghanistan mission. On that note, here's an article I read AFTER hearing your piece that made the knot in my stomach grow tighter. It's from a far-left perspective, but I have a hard time dismissing many of the points ... Including the loaded headline: "Did Osama Bin Laden Win the "War on Terror"?"
http://www.alternet.org/world/150842/did_osama_bin_laden_win_the_%22war_on_terror%22/?page=entire

Thanks for your wonderful show (I've sworn that I'd post to say that at least several dozen times before ...)

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# Craig Cohen 2011-05-05 07:37

PR Guy - Thanks for your kind comments. I'm pleased you found the program worth-while.

Thanks also to everyone who has shared your thoughts here.

Regards,

- Craig

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