The Same Mistake

A splash of color in a sea of black. Yemen was bin Laden's home country--the youngest of 3 wives living with him was 14 when he married her and she was sent to Pakistan.

The flowering of an Arab spring is not assured--in the case of Yemen it's probably a step backwards. We need to press our advantage, because this hell on Earth is not going away without a fight. The American citizen Awlaki is Osama's heir in Yemen, linked to attacks in the U.S. and also to the package bomb attempt on synagogues in Chicago.

Despite the spin from NPR and the Obama administration, is this really one last battle (?!) (How's that Google guy movement working out): 

"Around his death, I think we saw it as an important opportunity to say Osama bin Laden in many ways had already become irrelevant in parts of the region," Rhodes says. "His narrative of violent resistance and violent change had actually been eclipsed by the peaceful protests that we see in many parts of the Arab world."

And that strategic message is one we'll likely hear next week, when President Obama makes a speech about recent developments in the Middle East.

Rhodes is the the deputy national security adviser for strategic communication.

In the 90's after the fall of the Berlin Wall we thought we had a peace dividend, even as Islamic radicalism grew. After we helped the mujahideen to push the Soviets out of Afghanistan we left. Then came 9/11.

Let's not make the same mistake.

Related post: Mocking Osama. Porn in a Pigpen