Bin Laden: The End? Or Just The Beginning?

Bin Laden.

The End? Or Just The Beginning?

Bin Laden is dead. Or atleast that's what we're told...

There's no real solid proof the public has access to - All we're relying on is whatever we see on the TV and/or read in the papers... Which (at best) is speculative.

The US announced they won't be releasing any photographs for fear of national security, and while this leaves the door wide open to conspiracy theorists, frankly I don't think it takes a fool to see that they've done the right thing.

The death of Bin Laden - The end? The end of Al-Qaeda, world terrorism, famine, suffering, poverty, and terrible music from Justin Bieber?

No. Not even slightly.

Let's have a little potted bullet-point timeline of events from that fateful day in 2001:


2001:
>> September 11 - the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, Washington D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, United States, killed 2,993 people.
>> September 18 and October 9 - 2001 anthrax attacks kill 5 and infect 17 others by anthrax spores in New York City, New York, Boca Raton, Florida, and Washington D.C. in the United States.
>> October 7 - the War in Afghanistan begins.
>> October 16 - Operation Active Endeavour officially begins.


2002:
>> January 15 - Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines begins as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in the Southern Philippines.
>> February 27 - the Georgia Train and Equip Program begins.
>> October 7 - Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa begins.


2003:
>> January 3 to April 12 - anti-war groups across the world organized public protests against war with Iraq. About 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests.
>> February 5 - Colin Powell addressed a plenary session of the United Nations Security Council, stating categorically that Saddam Hussein was working to obtain key components to produce nuclear weapons.
>> March 20 - the Iraq War begins. President George W. Bush refers to it as "the central front in the War on Terror".


2004:
>> April 24 - The Georgia Train and Equip Program ends, but military assistance to Georgia continued through the Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program.
>> June 18 - The United States government, led by the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division, begins a series of ongoing attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan using drones (unmanned aerial vehicles). These attacks sought to defeat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants who were thought to have found a safe haven in Pakistan.


2005:
>> July 7 - the 1st London bombings kill 52 people and injure 700 more.


2006:
>> Nothing Notable happens.


2007:
>> February 6 - the Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara begins.


2008-2010:
>> Nothing notable happens.

2011:
>> May 2 - Osama bin Laden is killed in a raid by United States special forces troops on his residence in Pakistan.

These are the headlines - the milestone events in the alledged 'War on Terror'.

Here's more detailed information of attacks and foiled/failed attempts along the way:


Successful:

2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia
2003 Casablanca bombings and 2007 Casablanca bombings in Morocco
2003 Istanbul bombings in Turkey
2004 Moscow metro bombing and 2010 Moscow Metro bombings in Russia
2004 Madrid train bombings in Spain
2004 Moscow metro bombing
2006 Mumbai train bombings in India
2007 Glasgow International Airport attack in the United Kingdom
2007 Algiers bombings in Algeria
2007 Karachi bombing of Benazir Bhutto's motorcade and Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing in Pakistan
2008 Mumbai Terrorist Attacks in India


The Unsuccessful:

2005 London bombings (partially unsuccessful) and 2007 London car bombs
2006 Toronto terrorism plot
2006 transatlantic aircraft plot involving liquid explosives carried onto commercial airplanes
2007 Fort Dix attack plot
2009 Bronx terrorism plot
2009 New York Subway and United Kingdom Plot
2009 Christmas Bomb Plot
2010 Times Square car bombing attempt
2010 cargo plane bomb plot
2010 Portland car bomb plot

So yeah.

there's a lot to think about.

The war has been pushed to the back of people's minds thanks to what Paris Hilton had for lunch, or Lady Ga Ga wearing a dress made from meat, or some equally trivial, nonsensical story.

Let's just drag it back to the forefront.

Bin Laden was one man who had a strongly held belief. He alone had no major contribution to organised terrorism - it took hundreds of people who shared his vision to actually act upon it, in much the same way that if a tree falls in the woods and there's no one there to here it, does it make a sound?

The death of one man will not be the end of terrorism, and I dare to venture to say that it'd be far, far from it.

Bin Laden became the figurehead of Al-Qaeda, and died a martyr. His death will only spur on, if not exacerbate efforts from terror organisations such as Al-Qaeda. Only a fool would believe for a moment that everything will now be all rosey, with birds and butterflies, and no Justin Bieber.

Wisely, national security for allied countries has been stepped up, but as we've already seen, these efforts will not be enough. We know already, thanks to the UPS IED incident that it takes one slip-up for hundreds to pay.

I know the above is merely my two cents - an opinion, and at best, a prediction. I do believe however that we should be more aware of terrorist/suspect activity now than ever before.

Also, with free radicals of all ethnicities working with terrorist organisations, whatever their reasons, it's unfair to suspect a particular ethnic group, or people of a certain sect or religion.

I'm not saying 'don't trust anyone and stay in your home with locked windows and doors, curtains drawn incase Justin Bieber comes to napalm you', I'm just saying that we should all be a little more aware, acute... A little more tuned in. Switched on, if you will.