THE ARAB NEWS SAYS BIN LADEN IS DEAD, and echoes the sentiments of a number of warbloggers in its assessment:

With an ego the size of Mount Everest, Osama Bin Laden would not have, could not have, remained silent for so long. He had always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with. So, would he remain silent for nine months during which his illusions have been shattered one after another? If his adjutants can smuggle a video to Al-Jazeera in Qatar, why couldn’t he?

Even if he were still alive physically, Bin Laden is dead politically. He may live some more years in the hide-outs of the tribal zone in Pakistan just as some Nazi fugitives survived in the remote areas of Argentina and Paraguay.

And check out this assessment:

The fifth element that made Bin Ladenism possible was the West’s, especially America’s, perceived weakness if not actual cowardice. A joke going round the militant Islamist circles until last year was that the only thing the Americans would do if attacked was to sue the attackers in court. That element no longer exists. The Americans, supported by the largest coalition in history, have shown that they are prepared to use force against their enemies even if that means a long war with no easy victory in sight.

Hey, I thought that when America fought back, that just added to the problem. Guess not!

Ben Sheriff has some interesting observations on this article — which is worth reading in full, as are his comments. He notes that Saudi efforts to export Wahabbism get a pass in this otherwise-warblogesque assessment.