Dear viewers, in the event that you haven't heard, Osama bin Laden has been killed, again. Oh, yes. How many of you are old enough to remember the last time that we killed him? Hopefully most of you. Because it was only a handful of years ago. That's right. They were almost positive that they killed him. Regardless, apparently he's really dead this time.
What I really want to talk about is how this affects you, the reader of this awesome blog. It doesn't. Sadly, killing one man, even the leader of a terrorist organization will not overly disrupt terrorist operations. Now, of course, my readers are only informed citizens, so you're retort is, "but the CNN analyst dude said that al Qaeda would be dead after this." Obviously you all read articles on CNN.com because The Piebald Penguin gets his news from there. Frankly, I find the articles amusing. It's one of my vices. I make fun of liberals. Yep. Uh...where was I? Oh, right the media organizations are all talking to their "terrorism experts". My advice: Don't believe everything that the experts tell you (unless I tell you something. You should always believe everything I tell you. Remember, this is an awesome blog and you love it and want to give me lots of support by commenting down below and becoming a follower of my blog...like a real one. Don't be lame and just read all the stories without clicking the follow button. It hurts my feelings and makes me feel unimportant to you. Sad face.) Wow. Major tangent. Anyways...
The reason
Obama's (oops!) Osama's death means little to the big picture is as follows: a terrorist organization does not operate like an ordinary military institution. Yes, there is a chain of command and having a charismatic personality "in charge" is helpful, but ultimately, these men are self-motivated to cause terror. You have to be. Setting off a bomb that will definitely kill women and children requires a great deal of determination and courage (Perhaps I will explain that in a later post. But, in all honesty, killing yourself and others in such a manner requires motivation, faith, and an iron will). When your organization is made up of such men, a charismatic leader becomes unnecessary. It is an organization of individual cells and killing teams. They certainly do not coordinate everything with Osama bin Laden. They larger attacks, most likely, but it doesn't require a great deal of planning to bury a mine in the middle of a road. An example of this type of individualism in a military unit can be found in many places. I will use one from US history to illustrate my point. During the American Revolution (I'm referring to the United States' revolution from 1776-1783. I will be using the term "American" to refer to the revolutionary fighters. If you live in a country that is in North or South America but is not the United States, please don't take offense from this term. It's just easier to use.), American militiamen attempted to engage isolated units of the British Army. In these skirmishes, the first men to die were usually the British line officers, NCOs and buglers/drummers. The Americans would target these men first because it would seriously hinder the effectiveness of a British unit. The enlisted men in the British Army relied on these men to give the precise orders necessary to operate the company of men (company is used in the generic sense). However, the American militiamen operated in loose formations without the need for the strict control of the officer's orders (again, remember that this is in isolated, small unit tactics. Obviously by the end of the war, the United States Army resembled the European armies of the time, at least in structure, the quality was just a little worse). Al Qaeda operates in a similar fashion to these American militiamen.
Another small note. Even if al Qaeda were to dissolve, there are still plenty of other terrorist organization that are not lacking in leadership. Just a thought. Still, please don't take this post as a criticism of our armed forces. They continue to perform their duties with the utmost excellence, and I am a firm supporter of all men and women in uniform.
~The Piebald Penguin
P.S. Did anyone see Castle tonight??? Kind of a bombshell. Smiley.
