Nearly a decade after the September 11 attacks reshaped America's politics and national security strategy, President Barack Obama was set to announce Sunday night that U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden, a White House aide said in advance of the presidential statement.
"We killed Osama," the aide said.
The announcement marks, symbolically at least, the abrupt end to a period in American foreign policy that seemed best symbolized by stalemate in Libya, by the striking image of an Afghan prison guard gazing down a hole through which Taliban fighters had escaped, and by the unfortunate phrase, "leading from behind."
Bin Laden's continuing operational role is a matter of debate, and it's not clear that his death will have a large impact beyond its dramatic propaganda consequences. But for America's national security apparatus, Osama has been the white whale. And for Obama, his death appears to fulfill half of a promise made at an October, 2008 debate with Senator John McCain:
"We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda."
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