Tasted Cold

There’s an old Spanish proverb that goes something like this: “Revenge is a dish best tasted cold.”

In the case of Osama bin Laden, it took well over 10 years of grinding intelligence gathering, continuous analysis by hundreds of intelligence officers, and in the end, outstanding effort by a special forces team to bring down the world’s most infamous terrorist thug.

Most of the lessons here are symbolic and bin Laden’s demise telegraphs one very important message. Those who succeed in doing grave harm to the USA and those who try will be hunted down and killed. No matter how long it takes, no matter how many resources must be expended, no matter how much it antagonizes other terrorists.

The leader of a dominant Islamist movement has been brought to justice, but the movement itself will persist. For Islamist groups worldwide, the death of bin Laden will become a rallying cry for more violence. Al Qaida and its spawn will continue their cowardly attempts to harm innocents Some terrorist groups, notably the Palestinian group Hamas, have already condemned our work to eliminate bin Laden.

I found it interesting that Bin Laden was “buried at sea.” A nice touch by the President and his people. The last thing bin Laden deserved was a memorial in some Islamist stronghold where pilgrims could visit. Instead he sits at the bottom of the ocean—alone, anonymous, and invisible.

Congratulations to the administration, the national intelligence agencies, and the military for a job well done. The dish was tasted cold, but it was delicious nonetheless.