Is this the end of The Global War on Terror? asks Jim Fallows on theatlantic.com. “For years anti-terrorism experts have stressed the decentralized, self-sustaining nature of al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations around the world. The elimination of the celebrated symbol and inspiration of the movement will certainly not mean the end of terrorist threats, and in the short run could trigger revenge attacks. . . . But here is potentially the greatest significance of this news, apart from the “bringing justice to our enemies” satisfaction: it holds the potential of marking an end to the otherwise un-endable “Global War or Terror.” . . . As long as the “Global War on Terror” was defined as eliminating all threat of terrorist activity, it could never be ended. That threat — like other threats — will never completely go away. But if this admittedly symbolic victory in the “war” can be taken as closing a loop opened ten years ago (and earlier, with previous OBL-inspired attacks), perhaps it could free us to continue the vigilance while beginning to correct the decade-long warping of our values. That is another gift the commandos who carried out this mission may have given America. We will see whether Obama is willing to lead that way, and others are willing to follow.”
America has never had an appetite to keep fighting when the fighting is over; one of the best examples is Eisenhower letting the Russianss take Berlin, rather than sacrificing more GIs in a largely symbolic fight. Right now is exhausted and broke, and its spirit for this conflict ended a long time ago. We will take Osama’s death, and the relative calm of recent years, as a (probably premature) sign that the threat is over, and we can go back to taking our shampoo on airplanes. In fact, I will go Fallows one better, and say that America will soon make it very clear that we are no longer interested in having soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan. We would rather bring home the troops and save the money than give up Medicare. All Obama needs is one prominent Republican–John McCain, Lindsay Graham, John Boehner or Dick Lugar would do–and the troops should be on their way home. In fact, if I were any of the Republican presidential candidates, I would lay down a marker today: bring the troops home now.