PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

WHAT BIN LADEN LEAVES BEHIND

Now, in the post-bin Laden era, his biggest legacy will likely be not that he brought down the World Trade  Center, but that he demonstrated to the world the ultimate potential of terrorism. This is the unfortunate genie bin Laden let out of the bottle and it can’t be put back again. It is highly unlikely that the US will experience an on-going, serious threat (I mean serious in the sense of the equivalent of the danger of all out war) from the jihadists in the Muslim world. Instead, the most dangerous potential is now and has always been that some disaffected group here at home would adopt his tactics.

As bin Laden prepared for 2001,  he had help as he made his quest. The 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City surely inspired him and his followers. The small plane that crashed into the side of the White House when Clinton was president might have provided the beginning model for 9-11, 2001. The failure of the embassy bombings in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole to do greater harm to Americans might have encouraged him to up the ante. Lucky for us, he was unable to carry out an attack large enough that could truly have brought the country, and the economy, to its knees.

What we have now loose in the world is an idea as to how a great nation might be harmed or even partially destroyed. That is the ultimate damage from bin Laden that we, and generations which follow, will have to live with and deal with as best we can. There is no reason to further conflate the Islamic radicals into an all consuming, 100 years threat that requires us to pour hundreds of billions down the "security" drain. (Otherwise known as a rat hole. Like most defense expenditures, security represents a negative investment in America’s future and growth, because it is not an investment that provides a return or a multiplier effect. It just goes into the hole and doesn’t come back. The total capital effect of the defense spending disinvestment in America is surely in the many trillions of dollars that might have otherwise gone to meet other   needs. )

 The great danger in our future is what happens to the idea in the hands of others, including especially people in our own nation, if we are not able to deal with and tamp down the conflicts of the 21st century world. If this all seems too non-specific to frame any particular action on our part, that is because it accurately reflects the potential threat: vague. Fighting terrorism is a bit like a professional tennis player in a game against a talented amateur who has a few good shots: it is much more difficult to defend if you have no idea what is coming. Terrorism has to reveal itself in action before counter action can be accurately assembled, which is one reason that most security measures are invariably misdirected and over the top.

As for the terrorism from Islamic radicals, it will play itself out in time, even while we might experience new horrors along the way. Sooner or later, people will see the hopelessness of a few people trying to fight 300 million with the power and wealth of the United  States. The losses outweigh any likely gains by quantum factors. The process of moving away from terrorism has been underway long before bin Laden was killed this week.

Doug Terry, 5.4.11

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