Osama Bin Laden's Demise

Last May 1 (or May 2), 2011, US Navy SEALs infiltrated a mansion within the boarders of Pakistan. A firefight ensued resulting multiple casualties for the target area. One of the casualties is renowned Al Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden.

It is said that the leadership of the said terrorist organization is de-centralized to enable it to go on even after one of the leaders are liquidated, it still deals a big blow to the organization as the figurative head of the group is now dead.

Even after the announcement from the US government, other governments go on heightened alert as they expect a retaliation from the group. Even if the said mastermind of the Sept.11 attacks on the US is out of the picture, a greater fear looms over the people as they expect the worst to come. As it seems, its better to have a gorgon with a leading serpent to bring order to the lot, than a beheaded lead serpent which causes the others to strike more randomly and by their own will. Now the 'War Against Terror' will have to concentrate on weeding out the rest and tying up loose ends.

What stole the headlines from the 'victory against terrorism' are news and bits from around the world claiming that the picture took by the US government is a fake...looking like a photo shopped version of a previous public photo of Bin Laden.

One angle aims at the premise that since Bin Laden took a shot to the head, the actual corpse cannot be shown to the public due to the degree of damage sustained is too grotesque.

Some ask why did the Navy buried the body of Osama at sea almost immediately although the death of Saddam is widely documented in media and in the net.

To their defense, the US government said that they are respecting the Muslim tradition of burial after 24 hours of death, since no country would accept the corpse of the most wanted terrorist on the planet (did they ask Pakistan?). In a lighter sense, if this is true, its good to see that the US is starting to accept that there are more different cultures out there that should be respected even though it does not align with their own view of what the world should be.

Now back to the issue of if Osama Bin Laden is really dead.

As I was discussing with my wife, I have a theory; That the SEALs actually caught up with Osama. And since Osama is no longer the direct head of the terrorist network, he then strikes a deal with the US government to turn in the other cells of the network, effectively weakening it, in exchange for his life (or a condo in Detroit, like the one indicated in the Facebook parody way back).