"Elvis" has left the building, this time for good.Osama bin Laden is dead, killed Sunday morning after a 40-minute firefight with a U.S. special forces team.
During the 10 years terror leader bin Laden was on the lam, the CIA and other operatives tagged him with the code name "Elvis" because there were so many bogus sightings throughout the Middle East.
There had been several close calls, particularly near Tora Bora, where United States forces tried to bomb the mountains into rubble to no avail. Finally, a handful of Navy Seals did the job early Sunday morning. President Obama broke the news late last night.
Several years ago I wrote a column about the search for the most hunted man in the world, saying he'd be found in the penthouse of the Hilton in some big Pakistani city. It was, of course, a poke at the CIA and other members of the intelligence community for being unable to find the man. Turns out I wasn't far from the truth as bin Laden was killed while staying in an opulent, $1 million-plus compound near Islamabad, hiding in plain view.
And, it turns out my jibe was not exactly accurate because special forces units had him cornered several times over the last decade but were ordered off the target by Bush administration officials for reasons unknown. One time they had him in their crosshairs but were told not to drop the hammer. Another time they were ordered to stand down from a plan to drop land mines through a mountain pass leading to a cave where bin Laden was hiding.
The compound where bin Laden met his end was built about five years ago. For some time, the intelligence community believed somebody of "importance" was staying there. In February they learned it was bin Laden. Proceeding cautiously, Obama waited until Friday to give the Seals the OK to go after their target. Early Sunday morning, one of those Seals put a bullet in Obama's head after a 40-minute firefight. It cost the U.S. a helicopter, but nobody was injured.
There was much jubilation in New York City after the announcement, as well there should be. There's still a gaping hole in the ground and wounds to the heart in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the city and Washington, D.C. and reason to celebrate the demise of the man responsible.
But, the death of bin Laden most certainly does not spell the demise of al-Qaeda. In fact, if there was ever a time for more vigilance in the homeland, it is now because the terrorists now have a full-fledged martyr, whose ideals and principles will only fortify the spiritual and political roots of this jihad.
You see, whether we are from the Western world or Middle East, we tend to honor our heroes and, like it or not, bin Laden was a hero in the eyes of his followers, who died during combat in a holy war against an enemy described as the "American infidels."
This is a much different situation than the capture and execution of Saddam Hussein and Americans and residents of the Western world need to understand that. Bin Laden was not a strongman, or dictator as Hussein or Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi were described throughout history, he was viewed as a spiritual leader, rebelling against a Western lifestyle that was the antithesis of radical Islamic tenets. He died in a jihad, or holy war, which elevated him to martyrdom, was looked upon as the spiritual point man fighting what this element of the Islamic world viewed as a corrupt and immoral Westernization of their world and values.
We know, of course, that this stance is not typical of the Islamic world, despite rhetoric to the contrary. But, there is that radical element that bought into the whole concept and that is why today, we find ourselves in a heightened state of terror alert because of the threat of reprisals, which will surely come.
Al-Qaeda's numbers are unknown. Bin Laden's influence on the Muslim world is known. All that is sure is that he has enough followers to do harm to U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan and that they continue to fight an almost impossible to combat guerilla-style war that we have had a tough time dealing with since the conflict in Korea.
The over-arching question is, what do we do now in Afghanistan? Do we continue our military operations there? Do we suspend them? Is the war over or has it just begun?
Unfortunately, we won't know for quite some time.
So while we can close the books on bin Laden, we will have to wait awhile to see what the next chapter has to say about al-Qaeda.
