Osama Bin Laden is dead. Bin Laden has represented the face of evil for the past decade and everyone must thank USA for getting rid of him. Things will change now. Hopefully, USA will ask strong questions and exercise restraint before it doles out another multi-billion grant to Pakistan. There most-wanted man was living outside one of the biggest training facilities for Pakistan Military.

But as an Indian, this event is an eye-opener. It goes on to show that how far behind we (and for that matter, most other countries in the world) are behind USA in terms of our strategic abilities. The man who led the commemorative ceremony for Osama in Pakistan is Maulana Masood Azhar, who was released by India in the IC 814 Hijacking and has been responsible for most terrorism activities in India including the 2001 attack on Indian Parliament and the 26/11 Mumbai Attacks. Why can’t we conduct similar operations and get rid of these terrorists? I doubt that we lack on military expertise, but at the same time I don’t expect an honest, but nevertheless weak 78 year old to lead India into such high-risk acts. Since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, there has been no major incidence of terrorism inside the United States. After 10 years of pursuit, they did get Osama Bin Laden. USA didn’t bother to keep us in loop. It was acting out of self-interest. Instead of depending on or expecting USA to solve our problems, we should take concrete actions.

As for President Obama, the US, White House spokesman Jay Carney prefaced Brennan’s briefing by reading his (Obama’s) campaign promise: ‘’If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will. We must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights.’’

Obama fulfilled his promise. When will our promises get fulfilled ?