Thoughts on bin Laden...

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/02/bin.laden.dead/index.html?hpt=T1

"Ding Dong, the wicked witch is dead..." After nearly 10 years (more if you count back to his terrorist actions pre-dating 9/11/01), this Elusive Man (Not to be confused with the fictional man of the same name from Mass Effect 2) has finally been eliminated... And while I share the nation's and the world's joy that this man can no longer spread his violence, hatred, and evil I'm also left with a sense of dread for the coming weeks, months, and perhaps years.

"Dread? Why dread?" you ask...

Think for a moment. First, bin Laden was crazy... not stupid... a man like him would not allow himself to be killed without training someone to take over for him. I can not seriously believe that he would have been THAT arrogant to think he would never die. It was no secret that he'd been sick over the years... he knew his days would come to an end eventually and I don't think he'd want his 'cause' to die with him. So you KNOW there is someone else just waiting to take charge and continue the fight...

That little bit actually brings to mind another thought... and please forgive me for digressing a bit...

How come after all this time, he'd FINALLY allow himself to be caught and killed? And chalk this up to conspiracy theory or whatever else you'd like.. but I think he LET himself be caught and killed. But why would he do such a thing... well I think he knew he was sick and that he was going to die anyway. In his mind, and in the thoughts he spread, he thought that it is better to die fighting in the name of their god... in the name of Islam, as a marter. (Now this is not a finger point to Islam... I know many people who follow this faith and they are NOT nutters like this guy... this is just my understanding of what bin Laden has been known to have held as belief.) To die of something like illness would not give him the glories in the after life that he preached to make people follow him... so what does one do? Die for the cause... this way, he dies in the name of his 'god' and he gets to have his virgins and what not in the after life instead of taking the 'weaker' way out and dying of illness and get nothing... if that's true or not remains to be seen as with any faith in the after life... not my issue to debate at the moment... But it would make sense... if you knew you were dying anyway, why not take the glorious route instead of the feeble one? I just find it hard to believe that after all this time, even with all the cleaver and well thought out military plans over the years, bin Laden would get caught and killed. He'd managed to slip out just in time so many times before... why would this time be any different?

Thank you for the indulgence... now back to the reasons for the dread...

Second, there are countless people out there that follow him... and they're not going to take the death of bin Laden lightly... Did we when they killed all of those people in the many terror attacks they planned including 9/11? Hell no... they're going to want 'justice' same as we did... Violence begets more violence here people... we can't forget that... The 'cause' wasn't just bin Laden... sure he was that one that helped them believe and led them in the belief, but once you have the belief, you're not going to let it go just because the man who brought it to you is dead... you're going to want to continue the fight in his name... that's how this sort of thing works.

This isn't a time for anyone to sit back and think it's over... its far from it. bin Laden's death is just another point in the timeline, nothing more. Am I going to rejoice with the rest of the world? You betcha I am, this is one of the few times I've really felt proud to be an American... but I"m not going to be naive and think this is the last we'll hear of this...

That's also considering "Was it REALLY him?"... depends what you read... the link I provided at the top of this entry lends enough credit to this thought... where in the beginning it says they sent samples for DNA verification because the face wasn't 100% recognizable as bin Laden's and yet at the end they contradict this fact and say there was enough recognizable to make a 100% determination that it was him... we'll see...

V.