A great picture. This must have been greatly personal to you. With this man's death, a lot of questions and issues will surface, which reminds me of a quote by Winston Churchill, who said "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Indeed, a lot of questions arise, beginning with the level of complicity, if any, within Pakistan in harboring bin Laden. We long suspected he was there, and it isn't too surprising he was not in the tribal areas, given where other high level members of al Qaeda were captured.
I think your Churchill quote is apt. While most of us wish that bin Laden's death meant more in terms of our strategy and policy, it really does not. He was one man, important, but one nonetheless in a network that has a lot of middle managers who can keep it going, even absent their chief spokesman.
There are still many challenges we need to address, from how to reduce the stress on our over extended military to our continuing budget deficits, before we can correct many of the missteps of the last 10 years; while also helping to shepherd the new Arab and Muslim awakening in the Middle East and North Africa, that has done more to discredit bin Laden and al Qaeda's ideology, than anything else we have done or could have come up with.
A great picture. This must have been greatly personal to you. With this man's death, a lot of questions and issues will surface, which reminds me of a quote by Winston Churchill, who said "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
ReplyDeleteYes it was.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, a lot of questions arise, beginning with the level of complicity, if any, within Pakistan in harboring bin Laden. We long suspected he was there, and it isn't too surprising he was not in the tribal areas, given where other high level members of al Qaeda were captured.
I think your Churchill quote is apt. While most of us wish that bin Laden's death meant more in terms of our strategy and policy, it really does not. He was one man, important, but one nonetheless in a network that has a lot of middle managers who can keep it going, even absent their chief spokesman.
There are still many challenges we need to address, from how to reduce the stress on our over extended military to our continuing budget deficits, before we can correct many of the missteps of the last 10 years; while also helping to shepherd the new Arab and Muslim awakening in the Middle East and North Africa, that has done more to discredit bin Laden and al Qaeda's ideology, than anything else we have done or could have come up with.