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Does the death of Osama Bin Laden mean that America is not safer from terrorism, or less safe?
How can such things be quantified?
At the very least, it is a huge morale blow to AQ. Being the kind of organization this is, it's likely to have some kind of negative effect on them. It might not be a death blow but it very well could be the beginning of a more gradual degradation of their capabilities, or their ability to recruit or get others to help them. They will certainly suffer from the spotlight being focused on any alleged help they get in Pakistan. It might stop it in some cases or make their helpers nervous enough to not quite be so helpful in the future.
Although I voted 'same', I am hopeful that a lot of the 'recruits' for the past ten years were drawn to the legend of laboring and dying on behalf of bin Laden. Sorta like a lot of people want to go work for Apple so they can say they work 'with' Steve Jobs. Remove Jobs from the equation (which, sadly, may well happen) and some of the allure may be missing. Maybe with bin Laden gone, recruits will be harder to get.
Plus, I recall reading about bin Laden back in the late 1990s (Time magazine had a profile), with the article basically saying that one of the reasons he was No. 1 in the organization was because he had the money, and he was able to raise even more money. Hopefully, without him, some of the ready money will dry up (I realize that they have developed some other sources for cash, but it is always helpful to have someone capable of simply giving you a check).
As I have noted elsewhere, when it was announced that Hitler was dead (May 1, 1945) there were those who believed that the surviving Nazi's would revenge their leader, going into redoubts, etc. Of course, that did not happen, and everyone simply went home.
It is human nature to want to see positive results. 9/11 was a positive results for Al Qaeda, and made other lunatics want to join the fight. However, results since then have been rather meager, with a lot of the fighters living in, I assume, pretty primitive conditions. To learn that their legendary leader was not, as all assumed, living in a cave but in a house (a 'mansion' by their viewpoint, more than likely) probably caused some to say "Say What?" I bet that virtually all of the lower rank fighters truly thought that bin Laden was sharing in their privatations. Indeed, since he used couriers for the past six years, even his top men may have thought the same thing.
It is not much of a recruitment slogan:
"Come join the fight to avenge our leader who was living with the youngest of his five wives and seven of his children in a mansion with running water and plenty of food!"
I mean, I believe that Muslims (who believe in the 'old ways') are limited to four wives. So bin Laden exceeded the number by one. May have made him an infidel in the eyes of some of his followers. Of course, his defenders would probably say that he was a secret Morman (again, old school) which places no restriction on the number of wives.
How can you think we are safer? Immediately after his death, there were already talks of retaliation attacks, and I just saw video of soldiers patrolling the subways of NYC. So no, obviously we are less safe. The biggest blow to our safety in this country is our foreign policy.
Location: planet octupulous is nearing earths atmosphere
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when the tsa stops groaping people, people might feel safe again.. bin roach is just one cockroach out of millions that hate the usa..
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