Killing Osama only short term benefit
Reader comment on item: Capturing Osama

Submitted by Darwin Barrett (United States), Mar 9, 2004 at 19:28

I agree that the key is "...recognizing and defeating the body of ideas known as militant Islam or Islamism." Unfortunately it is difficult to separate the Islamists from mainstream Islam, and with our foundation of equality and religious freedom, and lack of willingness to confront any minority regardless of how dangerous they are to our way of life, it is unlikely that we will do much to impede their progress. The US has been hijacked by vocal militant minorities, many of whom are socialists and totalitarians. The communists were only loosely united by their ideology, and therefore the charisma of their local leader carried a lot more weight in the organizational structure. The Islamists are all under one leader, Allah and his "Prophet", and held together by the Qur'an. Most Muslims are not militant terrorists, but any one could become a militant terrorist, and that gives the Islamists an endless supply of potential warriors.

Killing Osama would be the equivalent of Killing a US General. It would slow things down a bit, but his replacement would be found very quickly.

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