Bin Laden, Big Deal (Berlin Wall Edition)

Foreign correspondent with the Daily Telegraph, here I come!

Had to rewrite the last article 'cos I took the wrong side. Oops. 

BIN LADEN, BIG DEAL Berlin Wall Edition 

These days, less and less people remember the fall of the Berlin Wall than do. But at least we were there for the ultimate demise of Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden’s demise is indeed the Berlin Wall of our times. To suggest otherwise would be to dismiss the Berlin Wall as but another human-made structure, or Bin Laden as just any other old geezer.

Never mind that Bin Laden was found in a fortified residence in the aptly-named Abbottabad in Pakistan, rather than some cave in Afghanistan (because people like Osama could have only possibly lived in caves, right?). If even George W Bush junior can bring himself to congratulate Barack Obama for doing what he could never do for so long as he looked in the wrong country for nearly an entire decade, so can we. Yes, yes we can.

That is not to deny that the War on Terror was a foil to the struggle to track down Bin Laden, after all. But in focussing on the fact that looking in caves and bombing Iraq was all in vain, we fail to comprehend and even appreciate the sheer awesomeness of America’s efforts under Obama to take down Public Enemy Number One completely under the radar, incognito, and without their closest allies ever knowing until Obama’s fateful and awe-inspiring announcement. Let’s not take this achievement away from the CIA and US Military, because they sorely needed it.

Many small-l liberals bemoan the lost opportunities that were thrown out with Bin Laden’s body in the Arabian Sea to reassert some lofty, erudite but nebulous ideals of the rule of law and presumption of innocence until proven guilty. I know I do. But let’s not kid ourselves – the Bin Laden trials were never going to see the light of day, let alone the pages of law school textbooks. This was Barack Obama’s moment, the exact boost he needed in the polls, and, at the end of the day, perhaps rightfully deserved.

Let us never forget that Bin Laden himself wasn’t that much of a saint either, and a formal death sentence would have only added spice and sizzle to celebrations of him as some martyr. Bin Laden as a guerilla may have been one of many, and he certainly did not define the Muslim world, but what commemorations and celebrations there were of Bin Laden is indicative of the cult of celebrity that surrounded him in his quest to define the Muslim world and its relations with the West.

However, with all the media and hype that surrounded Bin Laden, it was easy to forget that he was no Paris Hilton, but rather one of Saudi’s richest sons, and owner of a massive construction empire. He may not have ‘served billions’ like another giant fast-food killer, but as the ATM and CEO of Al-Qaeda branded terrorism, Bin Laden was similarly wealthy, transnational and likewise funded and licensed his name to terrorist operations from the USA to Kenya, the Middle East and the Far East in Indonesia and the Philippines. The sheer spectacle of the twin towers and and his subsequent sojourn in Abbottabad wiped away the world’s memories of all the planes he’d already hijacked in the 1990s in the Middle East and in Southeast Asia, and all the embassy, train station, public market and warship bombings he not only inspired but directly funded and masterminded. Fewer still recall Bin Laden’s nearly-successful plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II in Manila in 1995. From the comfort of our Sydney homes and offices where we have only ever needed to be alert but not alarmed, it was all too easy to forget the real, omnipresent threat posed by Bin Laden’s transnational presence to the peace and security of the rest of the world, but particularly Africa, the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia. 

Of course, life goes on even in death. But Bin Laden’s death doesn’t just mean that life goes on, but that the US and the ‘international community’ can finally move on with the reconstruction of Afghanistan and Western relations with the Muslim world, North-South/East-West relations in general and perhaps even the containment of North Korea. The possibilities are endless.  Bin Laden may not have been the only monkey on the world’s back, but he was one hell of a guerilla.

In Bin Laden’s death, let’s live a little.