1:05PM
The Politics Blog: "Life After the Bin Laden Kill: What Now?"
Monday, May 2, 2011 at 1:05PM
You can take down the wanted posters and run through the streets all you want, but the Osama bin Laden assassination leaves many essential questions unanswered. From Pakistan to China and the Pentagon to the 2012 polls, here's where we stand.
- So who runs Al Qaeda next?
- Will Al Qaeda retaliate?
- Isn't Pakistan is the real battleground — not Afghanistan?
- Is the Great Hunt finally over?
- Did Obama just get tough on terror for 2012?
Read the entire post at Esquire's The Politics Blog.
Reader Comments (4)
Best write up-reaction I've read yet.
Dr. Barnett scores again. Good write up.
Pakistan has to look out for it's own interests first. Every country has that right, some might say obligation. So I am not shocked that OBL was hiding in a Pakistani town close to a military facility. Let's put down the champaign glasses and take a calm look at this. By "protecting" OBL in this manner, they also had him where they could keep an eye on him. His movement and ability to communicate was limited. Yet the Pakistani's did not have to take any heat from extremists for "arresting" OBL.
"Double dealing" is all part of the game.
But I did hear a comment on the news today. Someone said that what they liked about OBL's end was that "The last thing he saw was a bunch of Americans coming after him with guns." That summed it up for me. I don't know where those SEALS drink...but I would like to buy a round.
When I heard of the news, I was surprised at the type of jubilation. There were even people on the news who literally talked about how our mission in Afghanistan was "done" and how we "should focus here at home." Most people who understand the US role since WWII put it in the prism of "US Empire," or "US Hegemony," while a little better, really irritates and insults my intelligence. You're right, they're "never coming home." This has nothing to do with being an "interventionist empire" like the paleo-conservatives put it.
This is all about getting governments/economies to a standard base level where they can "connect," as your put it, and we don't expect USes all over the place. We don't invade, Malaysia, for example, because they practice shariah in parallel with common law, that would be imperialism, and a war against Islam/Islamism.