The couple of dozen U.S. commandos who dropped onto bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad last weekend had to complete their mission in minutes, but it had taken years to get them there. The analysts who built that road believe that in addition to getting their man, they learned an essential lesson in how to think like their adversaries.
In 2006, bin Laden swore “not to die but a free man.” But Osama bin Laden died a prisoner in a jail of his own making, a man without a nation, living apart even from those who shared his belief that mass murder was the path to power.
In his final months, bin Laden could only watch as a wholly opposite force channeled the frustrations and aspirations of the Muslims for whom he claimed to act – a peaceful exercise of people power on the streets of cities across Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and throughout the Middle East and North Africa, a stirring and decisive uprising by those who yearned for change, yet turned their backs on the ways and means of Osama bin Laden.
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