Osama bin Laden is dead at last

The death of Osama bin Laden is one of those rare moments of nearly unmitigated rejoicing. A celebration of death goes against our nature, but in this case, as with the death of Adolf Hitler, a death brings closure and, in a word used by both Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, "justice."

Bin Laden's assassination — that is the honest description of his demise — places a cap on America's decade-old rage over the 9/11 attacks, which Bin Laden instigated and planned. Bush had promised to avenge those attacks by tracking down Bin Laden and his associates, but he took a detour through the quagmire of Iraq and lost sight of his promise to bring bin Laden to justice. Obama will get the credit for ordering the operation that killed bin Laden in a firefight inside his Pakistan compound, but the intelligence personnel who had tracked the wily bin Laden for nearly 10 years and carefully planned the surreptitious attack deserve most of the credit for this success.

Bin Laden's death gives a glimmer of revenge and justice to the thousands who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks and other al-Qaeda crimes, but it does not eliminate al-Qaeda. Without the charismatic bin Laden, al-Qaeda might lose some followers and financial support, but it will remain a thorn in the flesh of Western civilizations and a threat even to Islamic nations. The greatest benefit of this assassination might be the elimination of bin Laden's periodic videotapes promising doom for all who oppose him and thumbing his nose at the concerted efforts to find and kill him. At least we won't have to see those any more.

While clearly pleased with this achievement, President Obama still has his hands full in Afghanistan and Iraq, where al-Qaeda-inspired or -allied insurgencies continue their war against U.S.-allied governments. Militant Islamist perceptions will not die with Bin Laden and will continue to endanger the world economy until the financial and political support for this philosophy is buried along with its most prominent proponent.