When the United States President Barack Obama confirmed the death of Osama Bin Laden to the press tonight in the east room of the White House it brought curtains on the man who was hated and at the same time feared by the world especially the United States.
10 years after the 9/11 attacks, the United States special operations team (Navy SEALS Team Six) who were tasked with capturing/eliminating Osama Bin Laden finally did the unthinkable when they raided a mansion in abbottabad in Pakistan.
I still remember the graphic images on television of the 2 planes crashing into New Yorks WTC twin towers on 9/11. That incident left a deep scar of not only the United States but the rest of the world. The year was 2000 and the US economy was in recession after the dotcom crash. The crash of the twin towers also meant the crashing of my american dreams as the terrorist attack and the aftermath sent the economy further into a tailspin.
As I am writing this, I am watching the visuals of people on CNN with american flags in their hands cheering outside the white house.
The 9/11 attacks by Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaida changed everything. For instance, the stringent security at the airports in the United States which keeps getting even more stringent with new alerts is a nightmare for the travelers. When you have to board the flight, you remove your shoes, remove your belts, laptops, not allowed to carry liquids (yes this also includes water) and any metal objects place them in a tray before they are scanned and then put them on just in time to catch the flight. And now they have body searches if someone disagrees with body scanners.
I remember at Dallas airport, I was taking pictures of a car put on exhibition. What I didn't realize was that there was a cop who was observing me from a distance. I was a bit unnerved when the police officer started walking upto me. He asked my identification details and my profession. He then politely asked me to hand him the camera so that he can have a look at the pictures. For that few moments, I felt a bit uneasy but then realized that given the security situation the cop was just doing his job.
And that also sums up the attitude of most americans who have resigned themselves to the stringent security checks. Americans have understood it's a pain or sacrifice they need to make for a safe flight. The silver lining has been that there have been no major terrorist attacks in US after 9/11. The only exceptions being the aborted suicide bombing during christmas last year but that was from the planes heading towards US. On the lighter side, I am now so adept at removing my belt, shoes etc.. that I time myself to see whether I have bettered a previous record :)
Coming back to Osama Bin Laden, for all his praise of Pakistan by President Obama everyone is aware of the simmering tensions underneath between the close allies in the war against terror. I am highly skeptical whether the Pakistan Government was kept in the loop. It's very embarrassing for the Pakistan government when right from the ex-President Pervez Musharraf's rule to the current President Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan has vehemently denied the existence of Osama Bin Laden. From the reports coming in, it seems that Osama Bin Laden enjoyed a very high level of security in an affluent locality of abbottabad.
The US has consistently used technology as a tool when it used drones to zero in on the targets. Osama was well aware of the technical tools at US disposal and was careful enough to avoid using some of the modern communication tools like cellphone and the worldwide web. If news reports are to be believed Osama's lack of patronage of technology proved to be his Achilles heel as that raised suspicion of those monitoring his mansion. And rightly so when someone has a million dollar mansion and doesn't have any internet or cellphone plus they burn their trash instead of putting it for garbage collection, people start thinking as to there's something weird about the people living in the mansion.
Over the years the United States has pumped in billions of dollars in assistance to Pakistan but the real catch remained elusive. If there was a financial analysis then the death of Osama Bin Laden was a significant Return on Investment (ROI) for the United States.
What are the lessons for India? We have been relentlessly pursuing the extradition of Dawood Ibrahim for his role in the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai and Maulana Masood Azhar for the IC-814 hijacking. Add the name of LET founder Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed to the list for his role in 2008 Mumbai attacks. Pakistan has been stonewalling each of these requests. India also needs to focus more on covert operations just like the United States.
The political implications in the US would be that President Obama has got a significant boost in his re-election bid. On the other hand the chorus for withdrawing from Afghanistan would only get louder.
Credit must go to National Security team of President Obama, the Commander in Chief himself and the Special Ops team for pulling of such a daring operation by avoiding civilian casualties and keeping the operation under tight wraps till the result was achieved. Also Obama's speech which was measured amid the scenes of jubiliation showed the hallmark of someone who was quietly confident and didn't want to invite the fear of reprisals by punching his fists in the air just like ex-President George Bush whose infamous words "Mission Accomplished" on the deck of an USS aircraft carrier later came to haunt him and the United States.
There is a note of caution here. Just like the sci-fi movie "Aliens" wherein the ET creature leaves behind its offspring, Osama Bin Laden was shrewd enough to decentralize the terror operations which will continue to outlive him. Not to forget about the reprisals from those seeking revenge for the death of Osama Bin Laden. So in the euphoria one should not lose sight of the above facts.
Finally, to quote President Obama's word's "Justice has been done" to the 9/11 victims and this will go a long way in bringing some sense of closure to those grieving for their near and dear ones.
(Image courtesy:http://www.solcomhouse.com/images/bosbin.jpg)
(References: CNN)
