Spengler: Osama a casualty of the Arab revolt

Who would have ever thought that Osama bin Laden would become expendable?

Osama a casualty of the Arab revolt
By Spengler

More surprising than the death of Osama bin Laden on Monday was the fact that he lived unmolested in a mansion in Abbottabad, about 65 kilometers north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad. How many Pakistani officials and others must have known about this? "America can do whatever we set out mind to," President Barack Obama intoned in his May 1 announcement of Bin Laden's death at the hands during a strike by Pakistani and American special forces.

Not, apparently, without a little help from its friends, and remarkably belated help at that.

Normally I do not speculate on operational matters; to solicit information on secret matters even from very good sources is like telling Pinocchio, "Lie to me." Some considerations here are obvious, though, even without the usual disinformation. It is hard to conclude otherwise that Bin Laden died this week because people who knew his whereabouts chose this particular moment to inform the US authorities. What has changed? The simple answer is: everything has changed. Instability in the Muslim world has reached a level that makes Bin Laden redundant.

Read the whole thing.

Maybe Abbas should take that into consideration before signing up with Hamas?

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