Osama Bin Laden is Dead! - What if?

[Ardeur]

If you were to wake up tomorrow to this headline, what do you think would change? Would the war on terror suddenly end? Would the terrorists throw up their hands and say, "Oh no, Osama is gone, we give up!"?

So many people consider him the main target in the war on terror, and he very well should answer for his crimes, but is bringing this person in, dead or alive, really going to do anything besides feed propaganda? His followers will be energized because he'll be a martyr. The US and other super-crime-fighters (yes that's right, super-crime-fighters) will puff their chests and slap each other on the backside with manly grunts of "we beat the terrorists!"

[OTZ]

i hardly beleive that his death or capture will be seen as the turning point in the war on terror by any nation. he is a figurehead whose significance has been overblown - something i am fairly certain the US administration recognizes. it will definitley be milked for all its worth though - definitely a crowd pleaser.

[Fernandez_1492]

will definitley be milked for all its worth though - definitely a crowd pleaser.

Yuup. Obama spiked the ball and did his end zone dance. Lol

[Lord Zhang Ku]

Yuup. Obama spiked the ball and did his end zone dance. Lol

And you are necroing a dead thread why?

[Stark of Winterfell]

My god, this thread is over half a decade old. How, and most importantly why did you find and resurrect it? Why would you even want to spend the time doing so?

[Mehmed II]

If one head is chopped off, another one will take his place. The lesson of "What starts by the sword ends by the sword" should 've been learned long Long time ago.

[Xiaodun]

The only thing likely to happen is that Bush makes some big speach about how HE defeated Osama, then goes off to frame some other insurgent for being the root of all evil in the world.

Meh, thats politics for you

[Milteades]

The war on terror is not a war that cannot be won.

[Xiaodun]

Originally posted by Milteades@May 5 2005, 04:03 PM
The war on terror is not a war that cannot be won.

No, a war on terror never existed. Or rather, it existed since the creation of the nation state, only to be brought up recently.

The fixation on the war on terror is because the American government ran out of scapegoats (communits, nazis, etc.) and is now claiming to fight against insurgents. Only thing is, a good part of those insurgents are caused because of America's actions against former enemies, or popped up because of the war on terror itself.

[OTZ]

Originally posted by Mehmed II@May 5 2005, 03:59 PM
If one head is chopped off, another one will take his place. The lesson of "What starts by the sword ends by the sword" should 've been learned long Long time ago.

can you elaborate on this a little more? i think the addage is valid but maybe not in the way you intend it to be.

[Mehmed II]

If one head is chopped off, another one will take his place. The lesson of "What starts by the sword ends by the sword" should 've been learned long Long time ago.

What is there to elaborate about? There's no need for me to rant about the U.s politics in the region do I?

[Eusebius]

Originally posted by deathdoom56@May 5 2005, 03:08 PM
No, a war on terror never existed. Or rather, it existed since the creation of the nation state, only to be brought up recently.

Agreed, but that doesn't mean that terrorism shouldn't be proactively engaged on every level. Also, terrorism, as experienced today is totally different from way back when to the creation of the nation state and evolves constantly. It isn't a constant fact of life and shouldn't be accepted. People will always die, but that doesn't mean we should try to cure diseases (just an analogy, don't take this off topic.

The fixation on the war on terror is because the American government ran out of scapegoats (communits, nazis, etc.) and is now claiming to fight against insurgents. Only thing is, a good part of those insurgents are caused because of America's actions against former enemies, or popped up because of the war on terror itself.

Careful, if you start bashing America you might get one of these:



lol :w00t :lol I'll probably get into trouble for that - hey, just a joke, OK?

If Osama turned up dead tomorrow I'd thank God he is dead but I'm still not looking for my buddies in the service to return home next day or anything. It would be a great victory - a morale boost - but no it won't bring the troops home or make the US any safer. Personally and professionally, I'd say that Osama isn't planning any missions himself and is probably as unaware about what Al Qaida's ops as we are. He is on the run. You don't do anything when you're on the run. You keep your head down and hope someone forgets you exist. Eventually, the people in charge of his security will want to do something other than babysit him - this may occur years if not decades down the road - and they'll leave him to fend for himself. We'll catch him in some slum, a has-been terrorist mastermind who out lived his worth. It has happened before.

[OTZ]

Originally posted by Mehmed II@May 5 2005, 06:24 PM

What is there to elaborate about? There's no need for me to rant about the U.s politics in the region do I?

i am not asking for a rant. you misinterpreted what i was asking for.
i was just asking for you to elaborate a little more so that i can fully understand what you're implying. i am not sure if you are implying that the US use of force will beget more violence against them, or if you are trying to say that the terrorist actions against the US will be the downfall of all those who take up arms against them. the addage is ambiguous.

[Centurion Quintus]

People use the argument - 'Destroying the head of a terrorist one terrorist cell isn't going to do anything'.

It's doing something, it's better than letting OBL just run around freely. Better dead, than alive. The war in the east has only spread the notion that we are not to be meddled with ever farther. it's a good thing. I don't see how someone could even begin to come to the conclusion that the death of Osama would not be a good thing. :whistle

[Mad monkey]

{reduced size of unnecessary quote}

Well I personally say that the war was never on terror, I mean Iraq never harmed America, Bush merely attacked Iraq for oil.
Also, it's our own fault for getting into a war on Iraq, I mean we go in and start killing people for their oil right? They're merely fighting for their lives and their country! The only reason that we're still in Iraq is that we haven't gotten any oil.
Plus, you have just got to love Bush's whole "weapons of mass destrcution in Iraq" hoax, he's so good at being bad *wink* . To those who don't know it, that was all just a big bunch of nonsense meant to keep our minds on how "evil" Iraq is :whistle .

Well the day Osama does die, I'll be shouting at the TV screen;
"Is Osama really dead?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
The one who really DID do something bad???
God bless America you damned, turban wearing a-hole! HA HA! Take that Taliban!" :lol

[Garbarsardar]

Osama bin Laden was created by the same people who funded the war of Saddam against Iran, namely...

The CIA assembled a terror network that remains a cause of misery worldwide.

CIA Director William Casey called it "the kind of thing we should be doing." Aid to extremist groups in Afghanistan was a response to the Soviet invasion.
The truth is that President Carter gave the green light for covert support to the Mujaheddin six months before the December 1979 invasion. In the words of then National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, a major architect of Carter's policy, they were "drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap."

The US supported seven fundamentalist extremist groups throughout the 1980s and into the early 90s with cash, sophisticated weapons, and training to the tune of $5 billion--according to official figures. The secret Black Budget of the CIA reportedly quadrupled to $36 billion per year when Reagan became president in 1980, and some of this money went to support secret operations in Afghanistan. Some of the earliest training exercises took place inside the US, including rifle shooting at the High Rock gun club in Naugtuck, Connecticut. More technical training took place at the CIA's Camp Peary, nicknamed "The Farm," northeast of Williamsburg, Virginia. Among the topics covered by training sessions were surveillance and countersurveillance, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics and paramilitary operations.

Around the same time, a source of private funding was sought for the war. Osama bin Laden, a man with "impeccable Saudi credentials" (his father's construction company had just been awarded a contract to rebuild and restore the holy sites in Mecca and Medina) was given "free rein in Afghanistan" by the CIA. Using his share of his family's business empire, he built training camps and airplane landing strips, and carved underground bunkers in the mountains of Afghanistan (Tota Bora), all with Washington's approval. Just across the border, bin Laden's base in Pakistan was the Binoori mosque in Karachi. The prayer leader at this mosque was one Mullah Mohammed Omar, later "supreme leader" of the Taliban.

[OTZ]

geo-political situations change. the united states traded quite heavily with japan only a few years before they were dropping a-bombs on them.
enemies are not always enemies and friends are not always friends.

[Eusebius]

Originally posted by Garbarsardar@May 5 2005, 05:54 PM
Osama bin Laden was created by the same people who funded the war of Saddam against Iran, namely...

The CIA assembled a terror network that remains a cause of misery worldwide.

CIA Director William Casey called it "the kind of thing we should be doing." Aid to extremist groups in Afghanistan was a response to the Soviet invasion.
The truth is that President Carter gave the green light for covert support to the Mujaheddin six months before the December 1979 invasion. In the words of then National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, a major architect of Carter's policy, they were "drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap."

The US supported seven fundamentalist extremist groups throughout the 1980s and into the early 90s with cash, sophisticated weapons, and training to the tune of $5 billion--according to official figures. The secret Black Budget of the CIA reportedly quadrupled to $36 billion per year when Reagan became president in 1980, and some of this money went to support secret operations in Afghanistan. Some of the earliest training exercises took place inside the US, including rifle shooting at the High Rock gun club in Naugtuck, Connecticut. More technical training took place at the CIA's Camp Peary, nicknamed "The Farm," northeast of Williamsburg, Virginia. Among the topics covered by training sessions were surveillance and countersurveillance, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics and paramilitary operations.

Around the same time, a source of private funding was sought for the war. Osama bin Laden, a man with "impeccable Saudi credentials" (his father's construction company had just been awarded a contract to rebuild and restore the holy sites in Mecca and Medina) was given "free rein in Afghanistan" by the CIA. Using his share of his family's business empire, he built training camps and airplane landing strips, and carved underground bunkers in the mountains of Afghanistan (Tota Bora), all with Washington's approval. Just across the border, bin Laden's base in Pakistan was the Binoori mosque in Karachi. The prayer leader at this mosque was one Mullah Mohammed Omar, later "supreme leader" of the Taliban.

OK...

Thanks for the stuff we have all heard... *wink*

But you gotta' tie that into the topic. What is your opinion of what the world would be like without OBL? :getlost

If you were to wake up tomorrow to this headline, what do you think would change? Would the war on terror suddenly end? Would the terrorists throw up their hands and say, "Oh no, Osama is gone, we give up!"?

Also, it is customary to cite articles that you post. I think it is safe to assume you didn't just write that off the top of your head, at least not in the last 10 minutes of being on the forum. :whistle

[Mehmed II]

And liberators aren't always liberators...

[Eusebius]

Originally posted by OTZ@May 5 2005, 06:00 PM
geo-political situations change. the united states traded quite heavily with japan only a few years before they were dropping a-bombs on them.
enemies are not always enemies and friends are not always friends.

Excelent point. Guess who Germanies biggest trading partners were before WWII and WWI? That's right, Britain and France. We had supported Hussein, too - the lesser of two evils...