Osama bin Laden has left the building

Editorials in Arab newspapers comment on the death of Osama bin Laden and how the US can reconcile with the Islamic world.

The former US president George W Bush yearned for this moment: to address his countrymen and the world declaring that America has finally killed the September 11 murderer, wrote Ghassan Sharbel, the editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab Al Hayat daily.
Luck and timing favoured his successor Barack Obama for this coveted mission. "Obama, the different president with a different style. Who knows, the coming days may prove that he is far more dangerous than Bush and bin Laden put together, for he is capable of bringing down regimes and governments."
For years, bin Laden wore the US down. He was an obstinate opponent without a known address. He was also a very costly opponent. Colossal amounts of money were spent to improve security measures in US and western airports and embassies. He proved calamitous to the world from whence he came and alleged to defend.
Bin Laden had lost his battle long before he was killed. He lost it in Saudi Arabia as comprehensive security along with intellectual and religious confrontation succeeded in shrinking his popularity and isolating his ideology of despair and extremism.
During the past few months his seclusion became more apparent as none of the protesters in Tunisia and Cairo brandished his picture. That is because those revolutions came from an ideology incompatible with his. "Osama bin Laden came and left."
Terrorist killed in the comfort of his home
At long last, Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qa'eda, faced his inevitable doom, observed Tareq Homayed, the editor-in-chief of the London-based Asharq al Awsat.
He was killed in his lavish home, not on the battlefield, where he lived with his youngest wife. Meanwhile our youth perish away in jails and remote mountains. That is not forgetting his victims of every nationality who were radically changed following his terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001.
"The damages and losses were priceless, but none more so than the damage done to the image of Islam."
Bin Laden's death is a major blow to al Qa'eda. No matter how the organisation retaliates, the blow is still insurmountable. Bin Laden's existence was symbolic more than anything else. He symbolised a heroism with which he used to brainwash young people across the Islamic world.
"Now that he's dead, al Qa'eda doesn't have in its ranks a person with the same charismaor as bin Laden." His end was a natural and expected outcome, but it sends a clear message: that the man who duped followers wasn't killed in the field of valour, but in the comfort of his home where he hid with his wife while other people's children are getting killed in conflict zones."
The world is surely a better place now that this terrorist is no more.
Osama bin Laden: the man I knew
When I metOsama bin Laden inside his favourite cave in the Tora Bora mountain ridge overlooking the Afghan city of Jalalabad the winter in 1996, I never imagined that that tall, slender man would one day become one of the most famous Arab figures and the most wanted by all Arab and international intelligence agencies, commented Abdulbari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of the London-based Al Quds al Arabi.
"The man was simple, humble, well-behaved and spoke softly, never interrupting, listening carefully. When he spoke, he was direct and succinct. I asked him what was his biggest wish. he went silent for a moment before he answered teary-eyed: 'I wish to die a martyr.'"
The US president Barack Obama granted him his wish. The elimination of bin Laden is undoubtedly a great victory for Mr Obama and his administration. But it is a victory that didn't come cheap. The US war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan still goes on a decade later at a cost of more than $1 trillion.
Western experts believe that the eradication of bin Laden will eventually weaken al Qa'eda, but from a different point of view, because he died in dignity, while fighting back rather than being apprehended, he may become more of an icon and a legend.
"This could explain why the Americans chose to dump his body at sea."
 
US must now reconcile with the Islamic world
At last, a bullet in the head. The head that terrorised and puzzled many a big head in the world's most powerful countries, wrote the columnist Rajeh al Khouri in the Lebanese daily Annahar.
It was a bullet that will lead in to two directions. On one hand, it will make the re-election of the US president much easier. On the other hand, though, the consequences will be bloody, as retaliatory operations by al Qaeda's various branches are expected to target Americans and American interests around the world.
Mr Obama declared that justice was done with the killing of the world's number one terrorist, but this doesn't mean that the war on terrorism will stop.
This highly sensitive intelligence operation will always be one of the most exciting in history. It is also the most costly in view of the high price in blood and wars that was paid before bin Laden turned into a corpse.
Bin Laden's ideology has succeeded in widening the gap between the West and the Arab and Islamic world. The US must now look for opportunities to make things right with Muslims in general, especially at this time of change in the region. The Palestinian problem could be a perfect gateway for such reconciliation.
* Digest compiled by Racha Makarem
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