The Hill News

Despite the enormous significance of Osama bin Laden’s death, it is essential to avoid the premature conclusion of mission accomplished. In life, bin Laden fulfilled his own personal mission. After all, ideologically and operationally, his extensive international franchise of dedicated radicals is, and will remain, a clear-and-present danger for the foreseeable future and beyond. 

In the short-term, the potential for immediate reprisals by al Qaeda affiliates and/or independent like-mined groups remains real. In the long-term, the constant cat-and-mouse game will continue for many years. Furthermore, the past decade’s increasing devolution of the al Qaeda network will further accelerate, as will its diminishing mass appeal in various quarters.

During the current Arab Spring sweeping much of the Middle East, it is politically convenient for the region’s autocrats to attribute popular uprisings to al Qaeda factions. This is clearly the case in Liby! a and Syria. The reality is that ordinary people reacted to decades of repression and aspire to greater political and economic opening, transparency and accountability.

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