Bin Laden`s death in Arab Spring

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. in 2001, was killed last week by elite U.S. forces in a hideout in Pakistan. The victory marked the fruit of the U.S. chase for the terrorist leader for a decade by offering a reward of 25 million U.S. dollars for his capture. The 21st century started not on the first day of 2001 but on Sept. 11, 2001. The al-Qaeda leader changed the first decade of the new century into doom and gloom by attacking the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington with hijacked planes packed with passengers. The U.S.-led war on terrorism became a global agenda. The 9/11 attacks were a watershed moment for U.S. foreign diplomacy and even for air travel across the world.

The death of 3,000 people in New York in one day has left a deep scar on America and its people. Former U.S. President George W. Bush, who ordered the capture of bin Laden, rushed to start wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many civilians either lost their lives or were wounded and the hegemony the U.S. held alone after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union was seriously challenged.

President Barack Obama said, “Justice has been done,” when he announced the death of bin Laden Sunday. Americans celebrated in the streets with national flags, chanting, “USA! USA!” in the wee hours of the morning. Bin Laden`s demise is expected to deal a blow to radical Islamic groups including al-Qaeda. Of course, revenge attacks are likely over the short term.

Radical terrorist groups have failed to win over many Arabs in recent years. Bin laden was also coincidentally killed at the height of "Arab Spring," a democratization movement that started in Tunisia and spread via Egypt to the Middle East. Islamic theocracy or jihad means little to young Muslims, who communicate with the secular world via social networking services. Young people in the Middle East are rather attracted to secular democratization distant from religion instead of Islamic extremism that confronts with the West with terrorism and violence.

Al-Qaeda will not disappear immediately just because bin Laden was killed. His second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri is alive and homegrown radical terrorist organizations are active. Assisting democracy and economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa appears to be the only way to eradicate Islamic terrorists and their threat to global peace.