"Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered." (Zachariah 13:7)
It seems that this is what will become of the terrorist organizations without their leader, Osama bin Laden. This assumes that he was the main organizer of every guerrilla warfare tactic imposed upon the U.S. and that without him, everything will fall apart. If he was an intelligent leader, he would not have made himself the center of the entire organization (al Qaida). He probably would have split it up into several independent sections throughout the world so that his demise would not be the end of his campaign against pan-Arabism, socialism, democracy, and communism. Al Qaida in the past? Not if Osama had even a smidgen of intelligence, it isn't.
Besides, guerrilla warfare doesn't necessarily work like that. It's not based on certain people or places. It's based on ideology. If it's successful, it has no target to focus on. The ideology cannot be grasped and placed into a safe where no one will ever see or hear from it again. It slips through and infects those susceptible to fanaticism. It's a psychologically-based form of warfare, counting on the target pursued to make rash decisions and self-destruct. Thus far, they've done a pretty damn good job of that. Every action or decision now made out of fear of the possible attack from any outside source is the intended reaction.
Might I add: the reaction of several American people to the death of bin Laden is total hypocrisy. They cringe in disgust at footage of Iraqi's parading in the streets with dismembered bodies held high and people cheering. If they had the chance to get a hold of bin Laden's body, they would do exactly the same thing. Funny how the tables turn and suddenly violence and beastly behavior is all OK.
Yes, yes, and yes. In addition, Bin Laden likely would appreciate his newfound martyr status if he were able to, and it's likely to bolster Al Qaida's efforts knowing that their front man now has a direct line to Allah.
ReplyDeleteWe may be a bit disconnected from those families whose dismenbered sons or daughters were paraded in the streets of Iraq. I give a bit more latitude for those people who would want reprisals in such cases. The death of Osama bin Laden won't change anything except for political effect. There are lots of extremists Islamic al qaeda groups that act independent of other al qaeda groups but the core goal is the same, Jihad against the west. And they do have stratagies and targets according to terrorist analyst. Pacifism sounds rosy in a perfect world, but has no quarter in the realistic world.
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