Concerning one element of this: the worry over retaliation. I don't believe that anyone has any greater reason to worry about that than pre-Bin-Laden Death, and perhaps less so. I try to keep up with what's really happening "out there" on important issues by listening to every non-politician that appears [particularly on CSPAN panels] to give expert views [listen to enough over time and the truth begins to sift out pretty obviously].
There have been many terrorist activity experts who have spoken. Their message is that a). the CIA, etc is doing an excellent job, given the tools at their disposal, learning of these plots, and heading them off;
b). most active centers of terrorists at the moment are neither Al Quaeda nor in Afghanistan; but they are fairly well monitored; there is a worrisome Sudanese operative;
c). most terrorist groups realize now that success at the big splashy "hit" is unlikely and seem to be going for the smaller destruction type of planning [ex. bombs, walking bombs --- Iraq-like actions], and boats rather than planes;
d). Europe, Israel, and other targets are more at risk than the US;
e). the best way to eliminate terrorism is "counter-terrorism" which means going into relatively "clean" at-risk communities in those countries, and culture-building islands of security and non-violence. We are not very good at that yet, and don't spend anywhere enough emphasis at it.
My addition to this: If Bin-Laden's death causes some idiots to strike out, they will do so precipitously with probably not enough planning, and make their game more easy to uncover and eliminate. In the longer view, that could make things a bit safer.
