The killing of Osama bin Laden by US forces in Pakistan, after a decade-old hunt, would perhaps bring some degree of joy to those who are opposed to terrorism. On the other hand, those who are supporters or sympathisers of terrorism would be angered and may be already planning revenge attacks and the US has already cautioned about this possibility.
However, while this is a huge body blow to the terrorist machine does it mean that terrorism will crumble? Certainly not because the belief in terrorism has become deeply entrenched in many parts of the world, particularly in the Islamic countries, and therefore there is a huge terrorist following.
Of course, terrorism did not begin with bin Laden. It began very long before he became a player in the arena and what the western politicians, military men and the media are laying silent on and are not telling the world is that this terrorist was a creature of the US. Osama bin Laden was trained by the CIA during the war in Afghanistan against the Soviet army which was invited by the then Afghanistan government to fight the US proxy army of which bin laden was a part. Of course, at that time the Cold War was hot and the US did not want to lose Afghanistan which had a socialist-oriented government with close relations with its former Cold War rival the Soviet Union
But things got sour between bin Laden and the US and the latter’s close friend became its bitter enemy. This is not the first time the US friends have become its bitter enemies. Former Panamanian and military strongman, Noriega was a close friend of the United States. In fact, when former US President George Bush (senior), was the Deputy Director of the CIA Noriega was his point man in Panama. During the Iran/Iraq war in the late 1970s, the US supported Saddam Hussein who was not an enemy then and all the bad things we now know about him were almost unheard of. This is because Saddam Hussein was its friend then. The US and its allies turn a blind eye to Israeli terrorism, but they are swift in condemning Palestinian terrorism. There are numerous other examples of this double standard which could be cited.
The US operates on the principle that terrorism by its friends is not terrorism. Terrorism is only carried out by its enemies.
But what about terrorism carried out or sponsored by the US? The US unleashed terrorist attacks in Vietnam wiping out scores of villages inhabited by unarmed civilians. It installed and supported hundreds of dictators, throughout the world, who were terrorising and slaughtering their people. And no one would ever forget the most dastardly terrorist attack in the Caribbean when the CIA in 1976, through its operatives bombed a Cubana aircraft killing 75 persons who were Cubans, North Koreans and Guyanese. Even though the operatives were known they were never brought to justice.
Those of us who are old enough would remember the US funding and support of terrorist activities in Guyana in the early 1960s aimed at bringing down the PPP government led by the indomitable Dr. Cheddi Jagan.
Of course, the US propaganda machine would now up the ante to create the impression that the US is winning the war against terrorism and would use the killing of bin Laden to glorify their so-called victory.
The truth is that unless and until the US and its allies abandon their double standards with respect to terrorism, the fight against it will not be successful. Eliminating one terrorist, even though a high-profile one, is practically meaningless in the fight against terrorism.
The double standards approach has to be ended  and the causes and breeding grounds of terrorism will have to be eliminated if the fight against the scourge is to be successful.