Is Bin Laden Dead?

There is currently a very sketchy report that Bin Laden died of Typhoid about a month ago. If this report turns out to be true the intelligence communities of the Western World will have a massive celebration, but not for the reasons you might think. Sure Bin Laden is dead, and that was their goal, the reason for the party is how he died. If he died of Typhoid in a cave somewhere he died as a human, wasting away from sickness. This is not a good death from the stand point of the propaganda people at Al Qaeda. They wanted him to die a martyr, firing his AK47/74 cutting down swaths of infidel fighters, then when he ran out of ammo since the odds were overwhelming, he’d take grenades and run into the enemy lines to a glorious death, taking as many of the enemy as he could into the afterlife. His death as a martyr for his cause would become legend; it would be made into comic books or whatever, that would inspire generations of young men to join the jihad and die for the “glorious cause”. Even if Bin Laden was captured alive he could still be a symbol for the movement, since his trial would take months and he would a constant presence in the media, as he “defiantly resisted all efforts to break him and turn him from the cause”. However, if he died of an illness that caused him to waste away over months that could have been cured by drugs you can get at a pet store in America, he did not die a warrior or a martyr, Bin Laden died as a feeble, old man with terrible diarrhea. This death is more than those who fight against terror and insurgence could have hoped for! Unfortunately Bin Laden probably isn’t dead, he’s probably hiding in some cave in Pakistan. Worse still unless Al Qaeda announces Bin Laden is dead, with whatever story they makeup about how he died, no one who counts will believe he’s dead.
Never forget the fight against terror is more about hearts and minds then it is about bombs and bullets. To fight a belief, be it Muslim fundamentalism in the Middle East or racism at home, is the most difficult task that can be undertaken, since the timeline for the war isn’t measured in months it is measured in generations.