Finally!! Bin Laden Shot Dead!

[VidaMusic]

Pretty significant news breaking this morning that Osama Bin Laden has been shot and killed..

There'll be tears of Joy in New York today, still hard to believe he managed 10yrs on the run!

[stormforce]

As Obama said no matter how long it takes they would get him and they have aswell as one of his sons

[lawsy]

good in one respect

all it means now is one of his many nutty followers will want to avenge his death...

[flounderbout]

good in one respect

all it means now is one of his many nutty followers will want to avenge his death...

His nutty followers will be exactly as psychotic and determined to kill westerners as before I imagine.

In the short term there will be a slightly increased risk due to their wanting to prove this hasn't harmed Al Quaeda's ability to operate, but in the long term his demise can only be a good thing. He was a very skilful media manipulator and organiser. You know, for a psycho...

[Vultch]

I knew something was up security at Frankfurt airport last night was on red alert... normally their quite chilled..

[BUSHWHACKER]

Apparently he was caught completely by surprise, he thought they didn't collect bins on the week-end.

[John h]

His last facebook message says BRB someone at the door..........

[Apache]

Apparently he was caught completely by surprise, he thought they didn't collect bins on the week-end.

Thats funny

However, I do think this will mean lots of further Westerner bloodshed. It wont win the war on terror, or even slightly reduce it. There will always be some 'nutter in waiting' ready to be 'an even bigger slaughterer of the infidel' than he was.

I do think our leaders are perhaps slightly premature touting this as a victory.

[J i m s t e r]

His last words were : "This PS3 is great innit?"

[Calos]

I'm thinking, he was captured.

The US authorities will interrogate him for a while...... then conveniently provide the pics of his dead body.

They would never announce he was captured; would they? Way too much risk of "important" Americans being captured in kind.

So Bin is sat or hung by the wrists as we speak I recon, wasn't very long before we saw Sadams hanging was it?

Either way good, psychopaths are not good.

One less is

Cal

[Apache]

One less is

Cal

Trouble is, there's now hundreds, if not thousands more. The chest beating the yanks are doing will not help the situation.

Think of Al Qaeda (or any extremist organisation) as a wasp nest. Poking it with a big stick and going 'yay, we got one of you!!' will achieve what? I honestly think if they *have* got him, they should have kept their mouths shut, or at least been low key - but since when have 'merkins been able to do either of those things?

It saddens me deeply that this is probably a new start rather than the end of something.

[flounderbout]

Trouble is, there's now hundreds, if not thousands more.

I am normally pretty cynical, and I'm with you about chest beating Yanks Andy, but this is a pretty bleak outlook...

Sure there are a bunch of radicalised disaffected youth who over the years have drifted to militant Islam groups (I recommend reading Ed Husein's "The Islamist" for a fairly honest, slightly terrifying though somewhat self-absorbed insight). And for years they were told that the only way that young muslims could actualy change the world was by violent means against the Western hegemony, since there was no alternative way to power.

But the Arab Spring has served to show millions of young Muslims all around the world that they can have a real influence on Middle Eastern affairs by peaceful political protest without any resort to either violence or indeed extremist religion, and indeed the Arab Spring has been typified by an embrace of liberal culture by the bulk of the protestors.

So in that socio-political climate, why would the death of someone like Bin Laden (who contrary to popular belief is not widely revered by Islmaists, let alone muslims - he is too extreme even for many radical Islam groups) attract new followers to the Al-Quaeda cause? Personally I believe that what is widely seen as continued occupation and oppression by Western forces in e.g. Iraq, or the continuation of sanctions against Iran is far more likely to produce dyed in the wool extremists than the death of a reclusive lunatic.

So yes US triumphalism sticks in the craw, but I still believe that overall the outcome is a positive one. Sure existing AQ elements will want to make their mark in the coming months, but there is a reasonable chance that the movement will start to wither on the vine having lost its figurehead and (probably more importantly) being starved of its lifeblood, which is a feeling of political impotence amongst young muslim firebrands...

Also, your post made me think of this...

[Apache]

Also, your post made me think of this...

Lovely!

Yes, I agree with what you say, and I feel that the death of bin Laden will be seen by those who wish to see it that way, as further oppression by the West, and I still think (despite the Arab Spring) there's plenty of disaffected youth in the Arab nations with harsher regimes than the ones you mention to act as a source for swelling the ranks of Al-Q etc.

I fear the USA's foreign policy towards the middle east (and probably the world if I'm honest) will not change fast enough - if at all - to reduce the amount of people sliding towards these radical groups.

In short, I just don't think they 'get it'.

[flounderbout]

Lovely!

Durka durka mohammed jihad!!!

[Bogus]

The root of it all is the "Palestine" problem