Progressives are all celebrating Osama’s death. They only reason they are cheering is that Obama was President when this occurred. Peter Beinart, an apologist for Jihadists, is now claiming that killing Bin Laden means the war is over.
No human’s death is ever a blessing. But this comes close. Many modern revolutionaries have committed terrible crimes in pursuit of a vision that, at least in theory, had moral value. Osama bin Laden’s vision, by contrast, was both totalitarian and parochial. And he murdered freely in its pursuit. He was evil in both ends and means.
But we have more to be grateful for than this one villain’s demise. We must give thanks for something broader: The war on terror is over. I don’t mean that there is no threat of further jihadist attack. In the short term, the threat may even rise. I don’t mean that we should abandon all efforts at tracking terrorist cells. Of course not. But the war on terror was a way of seeing the world, explicitly modeled on World War II and the Cold War. It suggested that the struggle against “radical Islam” or “Islamofascism” or “Islamic terrorism” should be the overarching goal of American foreign policy, the prism through which we see the world.
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But the war on terror was worse. It made East Asia an afterthought during a critical period in China’s rise; it allowed all manner of dictators to sell their repression in Washington, just as they had during the Cold War; it facilitated America’s descent into torture; it wildly exaggerated the ideological appeal of a jihadist-Salafist movement whose vision of society most Muslims find revolting.
Yeah the death of Bin Laden will make Hamas, Hizb’Allah, Al-Shabaab, Al-Qaeda and others all lay down their arms and want peace. Expect the Left to declare victory and call Obama a hero. This will be their 2012 campaign blueprint. Democrats will proclaim Obama has brought peace and the war is over.
Tags: Peter Beinart, War on Terror
