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| New Yorkers react to news of the death of Osama bin Laden at the intersection of Church Street and Vesey Street at Ground Zero on the morning of May 2, 2011 in New York City. Bin Laden has been killed near Islamabad, Pakistan almost a decade after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and his body is in possession of the United States. |
by Michael Roberts
(May 02, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) The killing of Osama bin Laden is a major triumph for President Obama andUSA. It is a momentous symbolic victory. “Yes We Can” has been confirmed and underlined. It will boost Obama’s re-election chances immeasurably. The triumphalism displayed on the streets and in media outlets inUSAreveals the depths of patriotism as well as the hostility to extreme Muslim fundamentalism. Parenthetically and laconically one can note that there is no question of a war crimes charge being raised by Ban Ki Moon Incorporated against the US special forces responsible for the collateral killing of Osama’s “civilian” son and other civilians who may have died in the assault. The story of this commando strike is pictured as an “act of justice” not as an “outrage.”
This victory for Obama is also a victory for Osama. Having trod the path of mujahid in the path to Allah, he is now a shaheed at the feet of Allah. He is not fused with transcendental forces in the fashion secured by Tamil heroes/heroines past and present or Japanese kamikaze in wars past, but sits distinct as monad OSAMA bound in devotion to Allah.
He is thus immortal and his kinfolk will be mighty pleased by this sacrificial outcome – a perspective and philosophy which the vast majority of the people in the individuated West will never grasp.
This victory of the shaheed Osama will also generate repercussions and ramifications. There will be acts of vendetta directed atUSA, Americans and the West in general. The Salafi ideology will receive a boost and the failed Al Qaida objectives of overthrowing “the near enemy” and hurting “the far enemy” will receive another burst of energy as new buds spring forth in the form of Islamic youth — in the West, Middle East, Indian subcontinent, everywhere — attracted to the cause.
Salafi thinking is rhizomic (Handelman 2011) and does not require an Al Qaida fountainhead.
So, this fourth World War will simmer for decades to come.
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