Remaining vigilant
STAFF EDITORIAL:
The death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden does not mean we are living in a safer world.
Our reaction to the death of Osama bin Laden, in some ways, was a sigh of relief.
The man responsible for the most devastating attack on American soil had finally been brought to justice. Now we can sleep soundly, knowing that we are safer.
Or are we?
We have to consider the possibility that bin Laden’s followers will retaliate. Now that the terrorist hero of the extremists has died, he is going to be viewed by many as a martyr for the cause.
While bin Laden’s death is a great accomplishment for the United States and the war on terror, we can’t yet allow ourselves to think of this as an end game. If we let our guard down for a moment we are leaving ourselves susceptible to attack.
It is interesting that the compound where bin Laden had apparently been living for about six years is surrounded by a Pakistani military academy and the homes of high-ranking active and retired military officers.
The Pakistani government has supposedly been assisting us for the last several years in our search for bin Laden, while all that time he was living among them. It forces us to ask the question: Who can we trust? There is no better time than now to re-examine our relationships with our allies.
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