GOP veteran: Troops not safer because of bin Laden’s death

The first Iraq war veteran to join Congress after 9/11 said
Friday that the killing of Osama bin Laden has done nothing to make U.S. troops
safer overseas.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a Marine who served in
both Iraq and Afghanistan, said America’s enemies won’t fade away simply
because the al Qaeda leader is dead.

“I don’t think we are any safer,” Hunter said on the CBS
“Early Show.” “This gave us a big symbolic victory, [and] it’s great to have it.
But … I don’t think that there are not going to be suicide attacks now just
because bin Laden’s dead.”

{mosads}Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, was
killed in Pakistan early Monday morning during a covert raid by U.S. special
forces, the White House announced hours later. President Obama has said bin
Laden’s demise is more than just symbolic.

“The world is safer,” Obama said Monday from the White
House. “It is a better place because of the death of Osama bin Laden.”

But Obama has also warned that the development does not
signal the end of America’s war against terrorism — a sentiment echoed by leaders
in Congress.

“I don’t know how much of an impact the death of Osama bin
Laden had. He’s a person, he’s a symbol, it’s a historic event,” House Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday. “But it
isn’t an end to the threats to our national security.”

Washington is also abuzz this week over the White House’s
decision not to release the photos of the deceased bin Laden. A number of
intelligence officials and congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle
have voiced support for that move, arguing that their release could inflame
tensions and endanger Americans worldwide.

“If it even endangers one military life, one intelligence
officer overseas, then the president is right to make that decision,” Rep.
Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) told CBS Friday morning.

But Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee,
disagreed. He’s urging Obama to go public with the photos, arguing they would
bring closure to both the troops and the families of 9/11 victims. Such a move,
Hunter added, would not make Americans less safe, either at home or abroad.

“We’re already in as much danger as we’re going to be in,”
Hunter said. “It’s not like the extremist Muslim radicals are going to all of a
sudden say, ‘We aren’t going to go suicide bombing today because they did not
release those photos.’

“We should not curb our First Amendment rights because of what
some crazy people might do,” he said.