I read this, via James Fallows. The writer begins with "This is not a big deal." (UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald - of course - makes much the same mistake here.)
I understand that, objectively, bin Laden was not a "mastermind" like Blofeld and killing him does not end the threat of terrorism.
But "not a big deal"? Part of the horror of 9/11 was the lack of closure. These massive, catastrophic attacks killed so many and literally altered the landscape - architectural, geographic, political, cultural, economic - of this country. And then... What exactly? We toppled the Taliban and then stood around in the moonscaped wasteland of that country saying, "Now what?"
We invade Iraq and sink deeper and deeper into centuries of ethnic distrust and contemporary insurgent violence. And we're left saying, "Why?"
Today, at long last, feels like some closure. Almost ten years from that awful date, that son of a bitch is dead. That is a big deal. To say that it's not is either to be needlessly petty or to be some sort of emotionless Borg incapable of understanding the way events transpire in our lives.
Yes, this does not mean that terrorism is over and done with.
But it does mean that 9/11 is finally over.
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