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Well, to be honest, I think it was confirmed long before he died. I don't think I've ever heard a person, conservative or liberal, utter the words: 'well, if we can just find this sickly, bearded psychopath and kill him, then all of this will seem worth it.'
bin Laden's death may be symbolic, but materially it is nothing but a news story. And it doesn't even come close to confirming that the price we have paid in response to 9/11 was a good value. Like many others on this thread have said: He won. His death doesn't change that and what's more he was probably aware of that fact right up until the seconds before he died. How are we to take any sense of victory or even closure from that? Our culture has been made irrevocably less free, less tolerant and less democratic. If you go back and read some of his statements pre and post-9/11 you will remember that those were some of his stated goals. He was not a stupid man. Much like many people who are looking at America from the outside, I think he had a perspective that allowed him the foresight to know (or at least suspect) what would happen to us when we were hit hard. It's just another one of those gallingly ironic realities that pepper the history of mankind.
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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce
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