How Obama Vanquished Osama

Barack Obama has resurrected his presidency, and prevented the immortalization of bin Laden.

The assassination of Osama bin Laden is a historic moment. I confess, my first reaction was that U.S. President Barack Obama had just secured his re-election. His speech was masterful, to say the least: He invoked remembrance of the victims and their families first, offered the sentiment that "justice has been done," and then presented a final call to unity. All the right notes, delivered with adult seriousness.

Never mind the apparent facts of the case: Not a single American died? There were almost no civilian casualties? If true, this is simply astonishing.

Obama has slain the dragon. More to the point, he has produced results. This is a success story for him personally and, more importantly for the U.S., for his measured style of governance.

This all stands in contrast to the stark reality that the Republicans, in possession of an official document titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack in U.S.," failed to prevent the 9-11 attacks. Afterward, they invaded one country in an attempt to capture bin Laden, but failed. They then attacked another country in an illegal invasion based on falsehoods, and failed again. Americans quickly found themselves in a military and political disaster of epic proportions.

And, just to confirm their superior management style, the Republicans refused to regulate their friends on Wall Street, thus facilitating the destruction of the American economy. Bush tried to talk big, but he looked like a defeated man when he left office.

Now Obama has done the job – quietly, smartly, and without error. He has neutered the Republicans with the same precision that characterized the assassination itself. Having lately been dominated by cranks and haters who have achieved nothing more than new levels of political mean-spiritedness, the Republicans have no accomplishments of their own.

I think it is also worth noting that Obama has done the Arab world a huge favour. Religious fanatics of any faith who feel the Almighty urges the mass murder of innocent civilians should be considered enemies of all peoples. They are certainly no friends to Arab democrats. Religious fanaticism is, by definition, hostile to human rights and freedoms. Who could doubt the threat that bin Laden and his followers brought against the nascent democratic movements in the Middle East?

Fortunately, over the past two years, al-Qaeda’s influence has been falling, and the fact that the movement has lost a leader will come as a huge blow. Bin Laden has now suffered a calamity even worse than death; he has lost the chance to enter Muslim mythology.

The vision of a man who strikes a mighty blow against a giant is a powerful one. It becomes even more so when that giant-killer disappears into the mountains, whereby his fate becomes a mystery.

If bin Laden had cleanly escaped and died of natural causes in a remote area, it likely would have only been a few years before he became known as the kind of figure of legend that mythologists term “The King in the Mountain” – a hero who sleeps secreted in a mountain cave until summoned to rise up and defend his people in their ultimate peril. King Arthur of Camelot is the most famous example of such a figure for English speakers, but this is a myth common to virtually all cultures.

Now the peoples of the Arab world have one less threat against their freedom. Osama bin Laden committed war crimes, and ideally should have gone to stand trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. But I am content in the knowledge that he will no longer be able to join the immortals – that he has been reduced to the level of captured bandit. Grainy photos of bin Laden’s corpse will shortly appear and be broadcast to billions, an ending I suspect will be all too real, all too grim, to become the stuff of legend.

Photo courtesy of Reuters.