超级三等兵:Li Hongmei's column--English--People's Daily ...[]]

Death of Laden might leave some blurred prospect 17:02, May 04, 2011
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By Li Hongmei
Finally, US forces nailed and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden not in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan's border, but in a million-dollar compound in the garrison town of Abbottabad in an upscale suburb of Pakistan's capital. The decade-long thorn in the U.S. side is removed---being dumped in the sea in a perplexingly hurried way, but the pain lingers…, and the prospect of the current situation might point to where the Americans will by no means remain optimistic.
But, at least, at the moment, there is one American who is savoring the early spring of new hope after all seems frustrating---- a slowly recovering economy, the headache of unemployment, the shrinking popularity and diplomatic confusion. That is President Barack Obama.
It is estimated by some online polls his prospects for re-election in 2012 would "skyrocket" after so vocally reminding voters that he gave the order to kill the planet's most wanted terrorist, and pollster John Zogby says the president's approval rating could jump 10 percentage points or more. Also, Laden's death gives President Obama a political peg to begin his promised drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan from July 2011.
But whatever the short-term gains, will killing bin Laden be enough to assure Obama a second term 19 months from now? This reminds people of George W. Bush, who had formidable ratings and seemed "virtually unbeatable" after the 1991 Gulf War. But his support started plummeting as voters grew increasingly worried about the struggling economy.
More over, the US-claimed "sole victory" over tracing down and killing the most fatal threat to the world peace can hardly stamp out the root of terrorists, who have warned that they would target Pakistan and the US to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden immediately afterwards.
In the Arab world, media mostly keep conservative and neutral over the operation. Islamic scholars and peace activists said that the mass deaths dealt out by Osama bin Laden, including of Muslims, justified his killing and hoped that the 9/11 mastermind's end would herald a new period of peace. There were, however, regrets about his hurried burial at sea.
Additionally, the U.S.-proclaimed "doing justice" action in the territory of Pakistan kept Pak out of the loop, informing Islamabad about the operation and its purpose only after it was completed. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged broad intelligence cooperation from Pakistan but did not attribute any operational help from their so-called ally and did not even thank Pakistan.
Almost no one doubts it is the United States that hunted down and killed the 9/11 perpetrator Osama bin Laden in the wee hours of Monday, and it is American Navy Seals who stormed a compound in suburban Abbottabad, about 50 miles north of Islamabad, and gunned down him after a firefight in an operation that took just 40 minutes, but Pakistan's role well before the decisive moment should not be neglected and it is evident that the intelligence cooperation and the information gleaning efforts from the Pakistan side did play a big role in the operation. Meanwhile, it was unfair to suggest that Osama's presence within its territory reflected Pakistani complicity or incompetence.
Perhaps, Americans are sentimentally attached to the latest dope on Laden's execution ordered by their president, and Obama himself also needs some "heroic deeds" to push up his downward numbers.
But, never should one "pull down the bridge after crossing the river", as goes a popular Chinese saying. The Obama Administration has no right to leave its "ally", also involved in the long-term counter-terrorism mission, red-faced, making it a target of censure of its Western allies.
The articles in this column represent the author's views only. They do not represent opinions of People's Daily or People's Daily Online.
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