the Osama جنون "(d)Janana"

Ben Laden has been killed a week ago. Everyone knows that already, even "those in the UK who still rely on the printed press and had to wait till the evening to catch up with the rest of the world" as someone tweeted on the day Obama made his announcement, have been updated since then. 

Articles on the subject have been popping up non-stop, around the globe and around the clock, each with his added truth, knowledge and intel - ligence, many contradicting each other. Here's a sample of the different headlines in the last week:

- He'd been in Abbottabad for 3 years, then for 5 years, the latest I've seen is seven years… make your bids, one, two, ...

- The ISI had no idea, they knew but said nothing, they knew and helped. 

- Zardari has to be disposed of, Zardari is US' best ally in the region, who is Zardari? Zardari was in the know, was not.

- Bush had known about the hiding place since 2006, Bush did not know.  Bush cares, or not. Made a statement.  Will not make a statement (well one of his statements on the subject was "I don't know where Bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." --Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002" see previous post - http://www.aldavida.com/2011/01/mlk-day-vs-bush.html). Hw will or will not overshadow Obama, has been quite silent in the end. 

- When the targeted killing took place, Ben Laden was armed, then he was unarmed. He took cover behind his wife, but then did not really.  The whole family had to watch him being 'executed', or not. 

- He's been buried into the sea with all honours and according to Islamic rites, he's been dumped into the sea, "beware of seafoodnow for it is full of "anti-Occidents". 

- Muslims around the world mourn him.  Fanatics vow to avenge his death.  Muslims around the world could not care less about his death.  Since the Revolution in Egypt, or in Tunisia, his very existence became obsolete.  Muslims could not care less because he brought more death and blood than any other leader.  

- My favourite is the article detailing OBL's mother-in-law stroke and death upon hearing of his death by France24 -  http://www.france24.com/en/20110508-mother-law-dies-news-bin-laden-killing

The new trend is about the future of the organisation; will it be able to carry on without OBL or not.  How charismatic was he really? Who will be his successor? Will he have one? Was his succession planned?

Every paper has its own story, its own version.  One of them made an essay about the architecture of the compound in which he spent his last years because he thought everything else had already been written on the subject. 

Amin Maalouf's father, director of the An-Nahar newspaper in Lebanon until 1975, used to receive free issues of every paper that was distributed in Beyrouth.  When his young son, Amin, once asked him which paper held the truth, he wisely answered that no paper held the whole truth, because they each had their own, if one reads them all and is sensitive and aware enough, one will get the essentials of an event.

The same is true about OBL (or UBL as the "pros" in the US "secret world insist on calling him on twitter, even though everyone else writes it with an "O").

To sum it all up: yes, quite obviously. Ben laden is dead - whichever way one wants to spells his name, we are talking about the same person-, but terrorism is not.  Or not yet.  What will eventually cause an end to terror will have nothing to do with OBL, will have nothing to do with the legality, or not, of targeted killings, will have nothing to do with how Islamic or not his "burial" was.  

What will, however, make a difference is the way in which the West reacts to the different uprisings in the Middle East and Africa.  Or, in other words, the way in which the West accepts and adapts, or not, to a new global reality.

P.S. I can't take out of my mind the thought of kids in a few years' time studying about it in History books and the number of them who will fail their exams because they will confuse the "b" and the "s". Here's a trick to remember: B for bright, S for sado? Unless of course, the caliphate is formed, it will then be: B for bugger and S for saviour/saint.

Picture by Orangeacid / Dan Foy (http://www.flickr.com/photos/orangeacid/189693505/)