If ever we needed proof that politics is a land of make believe, the recent killing of Osama bin Laden is it.<\/p>\n
The world is certainly a better place without this terrorist in it.\u00a0 But to judge from the orgasmic eruptions of everyone from journalists and pundits to politicians and students, an impartial spectator could be forgiven for thinking that the reign of Islamic terror or jihad had finally been brought to a close.<\/p>\n
In truth, the reign of Al Qaeda <\/em>hasn\u2019t even been ended.\u00a0 In fact, this terrorist organization just received new life from the martyrdom of the one man whose face has come to symbolize for untold numbers of Muslims unwavering resistance to the Infidel.\u00a0 It is critical to remember this.<\/p>\n Interestingly, had George W. Bush still been president when the events that his administration set in motion reached their culmination this past weekend, Democrats would be among the first people to remind us of this.\u00a0 After all, it was the Democrats who during the better part of the last decade tirelessly cautioned Bush against supplying Al Qaeda with a recruitment tool via his aggressive foreign policy.\u00a0 Yet while they were right then, that they now fail to recognize that the killing of bin Laden promises to be a much greater incentive than anything that Bush had done shows that their warnings were insincerely motivated.<\/p>\n They were, in a word, playing politics.<\/p>\n If the Democrats weren\u2019t playing politics, then they would also be lamenting the unapologetic displays of American chauvinism that chanting crowds of students and others have arranged on college campuses and other locations\u2014including out front of the White House.\u00a0 For sure, bin Laden\u2019s death is something from which to derive satisfaction, but chanting \u201cUSA!\u201d in response to it can\u2019t but strike Muslims similarly to the way that the chanting crowds of Muslims who rejoiced over the collapse of the World Trade Center struck us.<\/p>\n But Democrats not only refrain from criticizing these \u201carrogant Americans;\u201d they have essentially chimed in right along with them.<\/p>\n If Democrats weren\u2019t just playing politics with Bush\u2019s prosecution of \u201cthe War on Terror,\u201d then rather than sing hosannas to President Obama, they would now be talking about bringing him up on criminal charges.\u00a0 The killing of bin Laden, for as richly deserved as it undeniably was, was nothing more or less than an assassination<\/em>.\u00a0 Furthermore, it was an assassination that ensued upon the invasion <\/em>of a sovereign nation.\u00a0\u00a0 That this is so is borne out by the Pakistani government\u2019s claim that it was not informed of this American \u201ckill mission\u201d before it transpired.<\/p>\n If Democrats weren\u2019t just playing politics during the Bush years, then they would now draw our attention to the fact that President Obama deserves no more, and arguably significantly less, credit for finding bin Laden than his predecessor, for the trail that lead to bin Laden was pieced together over a period of at least five years, long before Obama was elected to the presidency.\u00a0 And if Democrats weren\u2019t just playing politics, they would as well acknowledge that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, as well as the \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques\u201d that were there applied and that they so blatantly deplored, proved indispensable to assembling that trail.<\/p>\n If Democrats weren\u2019t playing politics against Bush, they would now warn us against confusing symbol for substance.\u00a0 The real \u201cmastermind\u201d behind 9\/11, Khalid Sheik Muhammad, has been in our custody for years\u2014i.e. long before the Obama administration was so much as a thought; bin Laden was for the most part a figure head.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some friends of mine, along with many others no doubt, fear that this most recent episode will guarantee President Obama\u2019s reelection. \u00a0Equally doubtless is that Democrats plan on exploiting this episode toward just that end.\u00a0 However, neither the nightmares of Republicans nor the dreams of Democrats are likely to materialize because of the killing of bin Laden.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Obama may very well get re-elected or he may very well not; but with November of 2012 a year-and-a-half off, and with everything else that composes Obama\u2019s track record, it would be as foolish to place all of one\u2019s eggs in the bin Laden basket as it is foolish to think that the killing of bin Laden went any <\/em>distance in harming Al Qaeda, much less Islamic jihadists the world over.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If ever we needed proof that politics is a land of make believe, the recent killing of Osama bin Laden is it. The world is certainly a better place without this terrorist in it.\u00a0 But to judge from the orgasmic eruptions of everyone from journalists and pundits to politicians and students, an impartial spectator could…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n