Denying bin Laden his legacy

The Labour movement column

By Anthony Painter

Osama bin Laden’s death is a moment of profound opportunity. It is not ‘victory.’ It is not closure. It is justice but it needs to be much more than that. Horrific though the physical harm and death caused by Al Qaeda in the last decade and a half or so have been, the damage to our minds and sense of balance has been just as profound. It is this psychological aspect of terrorism that creates much of the long-lasting damage. The eradication of bin Laden could perhaps offer us a chance to mentally free ourselves.

The psychological effect of terrorism is its real purpose – that’s why the more visual the act, the more dramatic the destruction, the more long-lasting the damage. It is aimed at spreading terror which is, in fact, a psychological state. It is a state in which, out of anger and fear, the target loses their reason and often acts more on emotional impulse. It’s why in the context of terror, the last thing you need is a President in the White House who is instinctive and impulsive.

So Osama bin Laden got lucky with the timing – it was the reflexive George W Bush he found sitting in the Oval Office rather than someone with more subtlety. And for almost ten years he’s had us on the run just as he’s been on the run – or so we thought. We even gave him a bonus in invading Iraq, removing the stanchions of order within the country, enabling Al Qaeda to run loose. That also took the heat off bin Laden himself in Afghanistan/Pakistan and allowed Afghanistan to slip towards disorder. It was anything but mission accomplished.

Now there’s a different guy in town and he’s a cerebral pragmatist. His clear focus has been to capture and eliminate bin Laden. And given that the fight against terror requires poise and care, where words can cost lives, the more measured and focused Obama approach has not only led to Bin Laden’s demise but it has also recalibrated the rhetoric. Bin Laden’s death also provides breathing space to review US policy in Afghanistan again and establishes a premise on which to begin a troop drawdown.

Obama’s statement on Bin Laden’s death on Sunday night re-emphasised the critical message that America’s focus was terrorism not Islam. Hopefully the message gets through. The initial understandable public response was nationalistic and triumphalist (and I was able to see directly as I happened to be staying in the Millennium Hilton in New York adjacent to Ground Zero so mingled in the crowds.) It needs something more sophisticated than that ultimately. It needs something like Obama’s approach writ large. There needs to be conflict resolution within our minds.

In his decision to define the type of mission – hand to hand rather than predator drone – and in seeing that mission through to a successful conclusion, he has become Jimmy Carter in reverse. With Dick Cheney and Rudy Giuliani commending his resolve and judgement, it is clear that Obama has become a different leader. Forget the 3am call, he’ll even be trusted with a 4am call as well now. Who says that Democrats can’t do national security?

Was it ‘just’ to kill bin Laden? The questions pre-supposes that apprehension was an option. There was a ferocious gun battle within the compound; it was a fight to the death though it is now clear that bin Laden himself wasn’t armed. But just say that he could have been taken alive then what? Was there really any other possible outcome than his death from the legal process? What purpose would a show trial have served? Would that in itself not have become a focus for more anger and hatred? Haven’t we had enough of that? Just witness the toxic politics surrounding the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and multiply by a thousand. It’s done. What is more important now is how we move on.

Whereas unity prevailed post-9/11 and post 7/7, division and hatred came to dominate. Aggressor and victim dance in a mutually reinforcing waltz of destruction. Differences of creed, of dress, of manner become walls of identity division. We face a common enemy in those who are inspired by hate but that hate separates us from one another also. And this is part of bin Laden’s real legacy: the suspicious glances on the tube, the angry right-wing columns, muscular liberalism, Geert Wilders, burning of the Koran, hate Imams, culture wars, banned burkas, martyrdom through massacre of innocents, and so it goes on.

Well, let’s step away from the dance. Let’s choose to re-discover what we have in common rather than amplify what separates us. Let’s deny bin Laden his legacy. That would be a real victory and his death affords us the opportunity to do so.

The basic reality is that British, American, European muslims want the same things as pretty much everyone else: to live a good life, to cherish their family, to earn a living, to live in peace, to live in an atmosphere of respect, to build a better future for their kids or at least one as good as the one they enjoyed. In North Africa and the Middle East they are demanding democracy as well. We’re very similar it would seem. So why not focus on the 99.9% we have in common rather than the 0.1% that divides us?

It’s time to move on and rebuild trust within society. It would be awful if despite bin Laden’s end, he still had the last laugh. It’s in our power to make sure that he does not.