Washington, DC, May 3, 2011 --  

The death of bin Laden provides a window to dismantling the worst of America's security industrial complex.

Throughout the 10 years between the collapse of the World Trade Center and the killing of Osama bin Laden, America has been a changed place. 1400¹ of its troops have been killed fighting in Afghanistan and 4500² in Iraq. Through last fall, $1.1 trillion dollars had been allocated³ for fighting these wars that -- rightly or wrongly -- were justified in response to "The War on Terror." To this day, a military prison at Guantanamo Bay holds 178 terrorist suspects⁴, with no plans to end their detention.

Inside its borders, parts of America -- particularly sections of Washington DC and New York City -- have been turned into armed camps with guardhouses, heavily armed police, and closed roads. Airline passengers have suffered long security lines, inconsistent and irrational rules, and regular indignities during screening.

Will this ever end?

Sunday's killing of Osama bin Laden is the closest thing there will ever be to a formal defeat of al-Qaeda. Unfortunately, the War on Terror is not a real war, but a metaphorical war like the "wars" on poverty and drugs. Just as these wars will never come to a clear end, neither will the struggle against terrorism. Yet the killing of bin Laden is still a symbolic milestone that can be harnessed to push through an end to the most irrational security excesses created in response to the attacks of 2001.

Winding down the security industrial complex that developed over the past decade will not be easy. Many thousands of people have built their careers on excess security, and they will resist any proposed cuts. One of the Bush Administrations most vocal security critics, for example, Richard Clark, opined in the New York Times that al-Qaeda is not dead and that "bin Laden's goal may yet be achieved".⁵ He and many others say that the killing of bin Laden actually increases the near-term threat of retaliatory attacks. The New York Times reported that the government uncovered plans to detonate a nuclear weapon should bin Laden be captured or killed, then notes almost as an afterthought that the government doesn't believe they have such a weapon.⁶

While a retaliatory attack is certainly possible, it is highly unlikely that it would be large or spectacular. It didn't take the killing of bin Laden to inspire the attacks of 2001, and yet there have been no successful attacks on American soil since then. If al-Qaeda really has the capability to carry out a revenge attack on America, then why has it failed to execute one in the past nine years and seven months? The simplest answer is that it can no longer do so.

But the mere suggestion that an attack could happen is enough for powerful people in the security industrial complex to justify their existence. Consider that the Homeland Security Department's color coded advisory system never dropped below the yellow "elevated" threat status throughout the nine years until it was phased out last month. What's worse, the new Homeland Security alert system uses the same "elevated" term as the lowest rating on the scale.⁷ Is it really credible that the threat level in the spring of this year is no less than it was the spring of 2002?

While the death of bin Laden is an opportunity to dismantle some security nonsense, most of it will probably remain until it fades into obscurity and is gradually seen as a historic anachronism.

During an architectural tour of Washington DC in the early 1990s, I was struck by the explanation for the empty arcade of shops below the imposing FBI headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue. When the building opened in 1975, these shops were never allowed to open out of security concerns during an era of anti-Vietnam war protests, and the empty arcades were made part of the security perimeter. Back in the peaceful and prosperous early 1990s, the idea of protecting the FBI from civil unrest seemed almost laughably silly. Some day, the same may be true of the post-2001 security perimeters around Washington's other iconic buildings.

Related Web Columns:

Ending the War on Terror, January 17, 2006

Notes:

1. Associated Press, US Military Deaths in Afghanistan at 1,445, April 26, 2011

2. Ibid., US Military Deaths in Iraq War at 4,452, May 3, 2011

3. Congressional Research Service, The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11, September 2, 2010

4. The Guardian, Guantánamo Bay Detainees - The Full List, April 25, 2011

5. New York Times, Bin Laden's Dead. Al Qaeda's Not, May 2, 2011

6. Ibid, Even Before Al Qaeda Lost Its Founder, It May Have Lost Some of Its Allure, May 2, 2011

7. USA Today, New Terror-Alert System Announced, April 21, 2011