Let’s not make mistakes now

Relief, even pleasure, I understand, but there is a real risk of drawing incorrect conclusions from the killing of Osama bin Laden.  Here are just of few of the mistakes that I already see being made:

• Triumphalism.  This is not an American triumph of historic proportions.  It is the culmination of 10 years of assiduous intelligence work that proves how really difficult it is to find an individual, though once you’ve found him killing is relatively easy.
• Justice.  I might regard his death as just, but this is not justice, as the President claimed.  Justice requires a process, even in a case as apparently justified as this one.
• Victory in the war on terror.  Obviously there is the real potential for terror to continue and even escalate.  Just as important:  terror is a means, like military force.  Victory is when ends triumph, not means:  democracy over totalitarianism, for example.  “War on terror” is the wrong framing, as we say in the conflict management business.
• Pakistan was cooperating with al Qaeda, or on the contrary deserves credit.  We can’t be sure of either, yet.  But they certainly have some explaining to do, since bin Laden was “hiding” near Islamabad in a military-oriented community.  President Obama suggested that their intelligence cooperation was helpful, but it is not clear what that means.
• Pakistan did or did not know about the operation.  I find that it hard to believe that Pakistan did not know, but if they didn’t it tells us something about their military and intelligence capabilities.  More than likely they were told something was happening and to keep out of the way, but they may not have been told exactly what.

My son, Adam Serwer at the American Prospect, reminds on Twitter that I predicted some time ago that bin Laden would not be found in a cave, or in a hole like Saddam Hussein, but rather in a luxury villa.  I got that right.

Now it is important to restrain ourselves and treat this event as the death of a mass murderer whose minions continue to threaten Muslims and non-Muslims alike.  We need to stay grounded and figure out, better than we have for the past ten years, what will reduce the risks we face.  Maybe it is less war–on terror, or in Iraq and Afghanistan–and more assiduous intelligence work.  Let’s not make mistakes now.

PS:  I’d like to agree with Lawrence Wright, who says “Democracy and civil society are the cure for the chronic misery of Muslim countries that has fed the rise of Islamic extremism.”  But the fact is that Pakistan has quite a bit of democracy and civil society.  Islamic extremism, which once had little purchase there, is definitely on the rise.  Certainly it is true that the Arab Spring offers an alternative narrative to young Muslims, but societies in transition to democracy are notoriously prone to war and other pathologies.  I don’t think we can disband the special forces and rely on civil society to restrain extremism.

PPS:  Far worse is Jennifer Rubin, whose celebratory triumphalism and crediting of harsh interrogation techniques (with no evidence) seems calculated to appeal to her public’s worst instincts while offending the rest of the world as much as possible.  I needn’t even mention her crediting of George W. Bush, whose efforts she says were far more important than you know whose.

PPPS: For those, like me, who did not wait up for the official announcement last night:

PPPPS: See also http://yfrog.com/gzlctaoj