After Osama Bin Laden Is Dead

I normally don't do politics on my blog, but I wanted to put these thoughts down.

What happens after Osama Bin Laden is dead? Over the past four weeks, with the help of the Pakistanis, the US has captured or killed a number of high ranking terrorists. They have made a break through on where the bad guys are hiding at and are getting some traction. Eventually, our old buddy Osama will be killed or captured by somebody. I think they still have the $25 Million bounty on him. Just like the Mafia, someone will flip on him. It may not be this year, but it will happen.

So when Osama Bin Laden is dead, what will become of America and her allies' resolve in the "War on Terror" (a stupid name since terror is a tactic, not a people)? The easy answer is that everyone will have a ticker-tape parade and call it a victory. While it will be as such, it will not be the end. Just like Bobby Kennedy's fight against organized crime, it will be long and unending.

It is possible that the Muslim world will tire of the constant suicide bombings that generally kill more of their's than ours. Maybe the chain will break like it did with the Black Panthers, the Weathermen or other domestic terror groups in the U.S. Maybe a two state solution will stick in Israel and the Middle East will settle down for a much needed period of peace. These "what-ifs" are all possibilities, but are not likely.

What is likely, is that after Osama is dead, that the "War on Terror" will follow the same path as the "War on Drugs" where we never really win it, but is just settles into a lower intensity than when it first started. Think back to the 80's when the drug runners were everywhere. Today, they are still around, just like the Mafia, but they are at a lower volume level and therefore not as much of a threat.

I do think that Osama will be caught, killed or die of disease before long. When that day comes, we will be faced with a problem of not having a face and a name for our ultimate enemy. And without a nemesis, the American people will lose interest. Of course, if history repeats itself, there will be some unintended consequence to rise up to replace it. There always is: WWI and Hitler, Hitler and the Cold War, The Cold War and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the Mujahidin, the Mujahidin and Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda and  9/11, 9/11 and Afghanistan. So we will have Afghanistan and something else.