Read about how Bin Laden's death has L.A. authorities on guard here.

While most Americans today are walking on cloud 9, a Pulitzer Prize-winning, ex- New York Times reporter who has covered the Middle East for seven years says we should be afraid. Very afraid.

Chris Hedges told a group gathered in L.A. Sunday night for a fundraiser for the news site Truthdig that the demise of Osama Bin Laden will only fortify Muslim extremists and inspire them to attack Americans on U.S. soil.

In other words, he argued, Sunday's triumph will only turn around to kick us in the ass. Here's what he said:

If it is correct that Osama bin Laden is dead, then it will spiral upwards with acts of suicidal vengeance. And I expect most probably on American soil.

Chris Hedges says we should expect blowback following Bin Laden's death.

Chris Hedges says we should expect blowback following Bin Laden's death.

Hedges reasons that the killing of Bin Laden in Pakistan will only serve to insult the world of Muslim extremism further, particularly after years of U.S. presence on Muslim soil, our invasion of Iraq and our use of military might against extremists:

I'm also intimately familiar with the collective humiliation that we have imposed on the Muslim world. The expansion of military occupation that took place throughout, in particular the Arab world, following 9/11–and that this presence of American imperial bases, dotted, not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Doha–is one that has done more to engender hatred and acts of terror than anything ever orchestrated by Osama bin Laden.

… We responded exactly as these terrorist organizations wanted us to respond. They wanted us to speak the language of violence.

Discuss.

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