Monday, May 2, 2011

We've Got Him! Bin Laden is No More

I woke up this morning and was greeted by something odd on Facebook. A number of my friends were writing about the death of someone and they seemed pretty "happy" about it. It was a bit confusing and worrying to see that. Generally, the death of someone should prompt things like "RIP ***".

So, I switched to the BBC app and found out... Osama Bin Laden, leader of Al Qaeda, and the face of terrorism for a good part of the past decade was killed by US forces earlier this morning in Pakistan.

Watching the news a little later on TV, people kept talking about the grieving families from September 11. I don't deny the fact that this is a momentous occasion of closure for those who lost loved ones and suffered directly under the hands of terror. However, its not just the American people who suffered in the past decade and its not just a day of relief for them.


Don't forget the July 7 attack in London. Don't forget the changes in air travel regulations which easily inconvenienced millions upon millions of travellers around the world. We have to take our shoes off. We have to walk around without belts. We have to go through scanners that display all our most intimates parts to a total stranger. This was all thanks to the sad and pathetic fools who think they are on a "crusade" of some sick kind.

This doesn't mean the end of the War on Terror. This also doesn't mean the end of terrorism, or Al Qaeda for that matter. Worst of all, it doesn't mean the air travel miseries will be eliminated overnight. It does, however, mean a brief period of relief that this chapter in history is finally over. According the security experts on TV this morning, it could also mean retaliation and revenge by those in that group still wanting to continue the fight - more caution and vigilance is required.

Ironically, though, he wasn't killed after being hunted down, holed up in a cave in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was, in fact, killed after US forces raided his mansion in a suburban area just a few clicks from the Pakistani capital.

It's over for now, at least...


- Coming straight from my iPad

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