TIME TO SMASH BIN LADEN’S LEGACY: Austin Bay writes:

The Arab Spring popular revolts caught al-Qaida by surprise. The revolts are not al-Qaida’s operational handiwork, and they certainly do not fit the ideologically driven historical narrative spun by al-Qaida elites, such as the late Osama bin Laden.

Of course, militant Islamists are exploiting the revolts. Egyptian Islamist extremists have launched attacks on Coptic Christians, seeking to ignite a sectarian civil war and derail Egypt’s transition process. Al-Qaida’s Musab al-Zarqawi attempted the same ploy in Iraq, pitting Sunnis against Shias.

However, demands for jobs and freedom swamp calls for a caliphate.

Bin Laden’s death at any time would have been a coup, but his death now, in this fascinating Arab Spring, provides Arab modernizers with a political tool to challenge the utopian poppycock of militant Islamist extremists and forward the goal of marginalizing them in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria.

Al-Qaida has always been first and foremost an information power whose most potent weapons are psychological manipulation, ideological influence and media exploitation.

Bin Laden’s death gives the entire civilized world an opportunity to attack al-Qaida’s strengths.

But does the West have the civilizational confidence to actually do that?

UPDATE: QED.