Did Bin Laden just win?

By Bin Laden's publicly stated measures, he won the last ten years, we did not. It's plausible that in death, he'll continue to win.

He set out to put us into self-destruct mode and we took the bait. With "market forces" as our only moral compass, we have blown our savings and then borrowed more from the Chinese, we've wasted ten years measuring only our own talent for consuming, we have traded no bid contracting for legitimate political capital, and we have erased any serious western influence in the global conversation, in order to get here: a killing turned public relations event complete with teasers, back-stories and a flash-mob celebration. We've demoted ourselves from super power to also ran. Democracy is bankrupt.

This is precisely what Bin Laden intended to put in play with 9/11.

In the meantime, Obama needed Bin Laden dead as badly as Bush needed him alive, at least to win elections. Whether he is or isn't is irrelevant on a historical scale.

But we must now focus on the core issues: resources, environment, education and civility. Doing this is the only way to start winning again.

- Nicholas Hayes, 2011