What Osama’s Assassination Tells Us About the War on Terror

May 2, 2011 By 13 Comments

Bin Laden’s operational role in terrorism has been downplayed, though he is believed to have been involved in the terrorist plots in Europe last year. Bin Laden may not have played a hands-on role in terrorism but his death is certainly an ideological defeat for terrorists. Notably, a mentor to Ayman al-Zawahiri and key spiritual influence over Al-Qaeda and Islamic extremism as a whole, Sayyid Imam al-Sharif (also known as Dr. al-Fadl) publicly turned on the terrorist group for its tactics. He blamed Al-Qaeda for causing the bloodshed of Muslims by provoking the West and amazingly, argued that the “misery” of the Muslim world and defeats on the battlefield are signs of Allah’s disapproval.

“He [al-Sharif] says that whenever infidels defeat Muslims, there can be only one explanation: Allah has allowed that as a punishment for the Muslims’ sins. Worth remembering the next time someone tells you that winning battles gets us nowhere, that it only makes martyrs of the militants,” writes Cliff May.

Al-Sharif’s indictment of Al-Qaeda was so devastating for Al-Qaeda that Ayman al-Zawahiri had to make a lengthy public response. It is unknown how many Muslims follow al-Sharif’s logic about the theological implications of Al-Qaeda’s defeats, but he is a very important figure in the Muslim world. The U.S. military says that the Taliban is suffering from morale deficiencies and so the Islamic extremist world is in need of encouragement. Bin Laden’s death, which did not come at a time of his choosing, will make enemies of the U.S. question their own safety and rid extremists of their best example of American weakness.

A key question moving forward will be the secession. The logical replacement for Bin Laden is Ayman al-Zawahiri, his second-in-command. However, security measures have resulted in decentralization and other leaders have come to the fore. The chief example is Anwar al-Awlaki an American imam who now leads Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. His group has proven very effective in fomenting homegrown extremism and has been tied to several plots in recent years, including the Fort Hood shooting, the Christmas Day underwear bomb plot of 2009 and the plot to blow up cargo planes with modified ink cartridges. He has become an extremely influential voice in the extremist world, with terrorism expert Evan Kohlmann saying that al-Awlaki’s preaching continues to “surface in every single homegrown terrorism investigation, whether in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, or beyond.”

Bin Laden’s death won’t end the war against radical Islam, as the ideology was never limited to one individual. However, this victory will bring critical intelligence about Al-Qaeda and other terrorists and will cause a crisis in the group. It will help frighten the enemies of the U.S. It will teach us valuable lessons in how to fight the wars of today and the future. The conflict will rage on but no matter how Islamic extremism spins it, this is an undeniable victory.

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About

Ryan Mauro is a fellow with the Clarionproject.org, the founder of WorldThreats.com and a frequent national security analyst for Fox News Channel. He can be contacted at [email protected]

  • oldatlantic

    Search Pakistan sanctions unjust to find articles before 9/11/2001 saying that the US sanctions on Pakistan's nuclear program put in place in 1998 after its test were crippling it. Ishrat Husain the central banker of Pakistan wrote a book after 9/11 saying the sanctions were having a major impact on Pakistan. Later after I quoted this on Internet sites he started saying they had little effect.
    http://ishrathusain.iba.edu.pk/
    http://www.iht.com/articles/2001/09/07/edmansoor_…

    "
    Pakistan:Leaving U.S. Sanctions in Place Would Be Grave
    By Mansoor Ijaz, R. James Woolsey and James A. Abrahamson
    Published: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2001

    NEW YORK: The Bush administration is preparing to lift punitive sanctions imposed on India for its nuclear program. But clearing this hurdle to bolster political, economic and military ties with India while maintaining even sterner sanctions on Pakistan would be seen throughout the Middle East as discrimination of the first order. Islamabad would be pushed in dangerous directions, particularly toward increased reliance on its nuclear and missile programs.

    Further crippling a weak Pakistan, perhaps to the point of state failure, would invite its myriad problems to spill over into other countries. Islamic militancy, arms and drug trafficking and religiously motivated sectarian violence could have devastating consequences for India's economic prospects and cause trouble in important Islamic oil-producing countries. Risks to U.S. forces and interests in the Middle East would be a virtual certainty.
    "

  • Shalom Freedman

    'Hamas' has already weighed in condemning the killing. So have the Iranians.
    I

  • tanstaafl

    Agreed, no more jizya!

  • tanstaafl

    The jihad continues against the infidel.

    • BigPat7

      Well, I be INFIDEL, and damn proud of it! I think I need a t-shirt proclaiming INFIDEL as well, so there is no frigging confusion.

    • cgerber

      We really don't give a damm what you think of us infedels, just remember crawl back into your 7-11th century dogma, but then its all a lies. I know you want to keep those infidel AK47's RPG's, Cars, Cell Phones, in addition all the infedel technology. Riding a Camel sure sucks in comparison to Benzes, BMW's, and other infidels luxury vehicles. What would you do without not being able to sell all that OIL. We infidels wish you all the 72 Gay virgins since there are no more real virgins left.

  • BigPat7

    A mere 800 feet away from a police station too. You can't tell me a ton of Pakistanis didn't know precisely who was in this compound.
    But I wouldn't credit POTUS too much, other than leaving Bush efforts intact. But if POTUS had his was and shut down Gitmo as he wanted to, we never would have learned of this last August.

  • BigPat7

    Well stated. By success of this mission, it shows how wrong our POTUS has been since 20 Jan 2009. Had he closed Gitmo as he was striving for, we never would have learned of this.
    His TV speech to We The People last night showed Obama was trying to claim much more credit for this mission than is really due him.
    We me on west coast, midnight my time, thousands still rocking Ground Zero, Times Square, and White House. Just the thing cellphones were made for, to call in sick Monday morning at work, just find a quiet spot to call from first.

  • ObamaYoMoma

    This is a momentous event in the war against radical Islam that should be celebrated by all and as the story develops, crucial information about the state of the war will come forth.

    Actually, mainstream orthodox Islam is at war with all unbelievers around the world, not radical Islam because the notion of a radical Islam is a political correct myth fostered by Western liberal governments, the lamestream media, and certain RINO writers who cater to establishment RINO country club Republicans that together with the Left have hijacked the media, the federal governments, and most liberal governments in the West.

    Indeed, the notion of a radical Islam is utterly absurd as the texts and tenets of Islam are immutable and anyone altering just one word of it would be instantly recognized as a blasphemer, which in Islam is a capital offense punished under the pain of death.

    In fact, mainstream orthodox Islam commands all Muhammadans to wage jihad against unbelievers for the spread of Islam, and that jihad ideology is not only taught and advocated by all sects and divisions within Sunni and Shi’a Islam, but it is also taught and advocated by all schools of Islamic jurisprudence in Sunni and Shi’a Islam. Anyone claiming otherwise is either a loon who doesn’t have a clue about Islam or is a mendacious liar.

    Furthermore, because Islam, in stark contrast to true faith-based religions, requires all of its adherents to submit totally to the will of Allah, each Muhammadan in effect becomes a devout slave of Allah. Hence, if any Muhammadan so much as questions or challenges those commandments put forth by mainstream orthodox Islam to wage jihad against unbelievers for the spread of Islam, which, by the way, is the sole purpose of Islam, those Muhammadan would become guilty of blasphemy and be executed, as blasphemy like apostasy in Islam are capital offenses.

    Indeed, what true faith-based religions punish blasphemy and apostasy via such draconian punishments? The answer is none of them do, which proves at the same time that Islam is not really a true faith-based religion, but instead a militant theo-political totalitarian ideology that seeks as its main goal the subjugation of the world into a very draconian form of Islamic totalitarianism via the imposition of Sharia.

    In addition, while this RINO writer claims that we are at war with radical Islam, which is utterly absurd on its face, the Bush and Obama administrations both insist that we are not at war with Islam, but instead with violent extremism, as if Islam is completely irrelevant.

    At the same time both administrations also completely ignore the fact that jihad today is primarily waged via stealth and deceptive non-violent means of jihad. In fact, the violent variety of jihad, and what we erroneously call terrorism, is the least ubiquitous variety of jihad being employed in the world today, and it is used primarily to divert attention away from the stealth and non-violent varieties of jihad, which are exponentially far more prevalently employed in the world today.

    Indeed, mass Muhammadan immigration, or demographic conquest, whether through legal or illegal immigration, is the most prevalently employed form of stealth and deceptive non-violent jihad today. In fact, Islam just recently conquered the Ivory Coast primarily through demographic conquest accomplished via illegal immigration, and demographic conquest is actively being employed in the USA and throughout the world today.

    Indeed, the dirty little secret our federal government and the lamestream media always avoids like the plague, is the fact that the 9/11 terrorists attacks would have been completely impossible if not for the millions of Muhammadans and thousands of Saudi owned and operated mosques and madrassas that were already present in the USA. Thus, remember that in the next few days as former Bush administration officials and current Obama administration officials take credit for protecting the homeland and mutually praise each other, to justify their lucrative government jobs, and also to create a false sense of security.

    The reality is, as long as we have millions of unassimilated and unintegrated Muhammadans living in America, the Muhammadans can hit us almost at will. In fact, this false sense of security is being propagated exactly to justify the massive expansion of the federal government that took place ironically under a Republican administration no less and also so we can continue accommodating mass Muhammadan immigration (demographic conquest) with all of its excess baggage.

  • ObamaYoMoma

    Notably, a mentor to Ayman al-Zawahiri and key spiritual influence over Al-Qaeda and Islamic extremism as a whole, Sayyid Imam al-Sharif (also known as Dr. al-Fadl) publicly turned on the terrorist group for its tactics. He blamed Al-Qaeda for causing the bloodshed of Muslims by provoking the West and amazingly, argued that the “misery” of the Muslim world and defeats on the battlefield are signs of Allah’s disapproval.

    First of all, waging jihad against unbelievers for the spread of Islam in the cause of Allah is not Islamic extremism, as it couldn’t be more mainstream throughout the Islamic world today. Furthermore, Sayyid Imam al-Sharif (also known as Dr. al-Fadl) publicly turned against OBL, Zawahiri, and AQ not because he disagreed with their goals to make Islam supreme throughout the world, but instead because he disagreed with their tactics. Indeed, the only difference between OBL, Zawahiri, and AQ and Dr. al-Fadl, is the former were adherents of violent jihad and the latter is an advocate of stealth and deceptive non-violent jihad. On all other substantial matters regarding Islam, both factions are in perfect and total agreement.

    Bin Laden’s death, which did not come at a time of his choosing, will make enemies of the U.S. question their own safety and rid extremists of their best example of American weakness.

    Nah…not really if they read your work, just the opposite will occur, because they will become emboldened bolstered by the idiocy of your writings.

    However, security measures have resulted in decentralization and other leaders have come to the fore. The chief example is Anwar al-Awlaki an American imam who now leads Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

    Actually, any and all jihadists groups that come to the fore, that is becomes known, are always automatically and instantly dubbed as being affiliate organizations of AQ, in order to help facilitate the notion, in the case of the Bush administration, that we are war with terrorists, and in the case of the Obama administration, that we are at war with violent extremism. However, the dirty little secret both administrations are hiding from you and don’t want you to know, is that mainstream orthodox Islam is at war with all unbelievers around the world.

    Hence, today we have AQ in the Arabian Peninsula, AQ in the Maghreb, AQ in Iraq, Al-Shabab in Somalia has been dubbed an AQ affiliate network, and indeed violent jihadists all over the world are being dubbed as being AQ affiliated terrorist groups as soon and as fast as they pop up. Why? Obviously, it is to keep the focus off of mainstream orthodox Islam in order to keep the focus only on terrorists or violent extremists. Hence, why? That is the real million-dollar question. To justify a massive expansion in the federal government and to also protect a rapidly expanding new industry built around terrorism and the millions of jobs it provides. Without terrorism, the massive government expansion couldn’t be justified and this new industry would go bust.

    The conflict will rage on but no matter how Islamic extremism spins it,

    Actually, jihad will go on as it has perpetually gone on for the past almost 1400 years and as long as their continues to exist unbelievers that haven’t been forced to submit to the authority of Islam, and so-called Islamic extremism has nothing whatsoever to do with anything, much less mainstream orthodox Islam.

  • Crazyhorse

    India wil get a lot bigger very soon-after november..

  • http://nil.com Billa

    We love Osama Bin Laden Shaheed. He is the Hero of Islam and May be he is still alive .

  • http://nil.com Billa

    This operation against Osama Bin Laden is just a drama by US to show that Pakistan is Supporting Terrorists , actually US wants to make Pakistan a weaker Nation.