Thousands of miles away from all the camera flashes, Twitter posts and press conferences, the corpse of Osama bin Laden aimlessly drifts in the Arabian Sea current.
For a man who spent nearly a decade in the limelight as the United States' public enemy No.1, the burial at sea, carried out by the U.S. military under decorum procedures sanitized of publicity, highlights the obscurity and ambiguity associated with his legacy.
Though the narrative of bin Laden's life has come to a brutish conclusion, many questions, both old and new, remain. Some of these questions, local experts say, have endless possibilities. Others can only be met with a shrug of the shoulders and a "wait and see."
Terje Ostebo, an assistant professor in UF's Department of Religion, said that bin Laden's death probably won't be the blow that ends terrorist threats altogether for the United States. While it is a major hit for al-Qaida, there are other terrorist movements, Ostebo said, that will most likely continue to pursue their own goals.
It probably won't lead to a major decline in attacks fueled by religious beliefs either, Ostebo said, because the tension between Muslims in the Middle East and the Western world is based on issues that run deeper than bin Laden's leadership.
Patricia Woods, an associate professor of political science at UF, shared similar sentiments. She acknowledged that while bin Laden commanded the support of several Muslim extremists, he was never representative of the overall sentiments in the Middle East.
"I think our understanding of the Muslim world is getting better and that we understand a little better now that he never had anywhere close to even a plurality of the Middle East supporting him," Woods said. "He never represented a big constituency - it's just that it only takes a few people to carry a bomb these days."
The current rise of protest against authoritarian governments in the Middle East, which has become known as the "Arab Spring," illustrates this non- allegiance to bin Laden and his methods, Woods said.
The United States, Ostebo said, should take this into consideration. If the West can come to the aid of the young demonstrators in the Muslim world and others there who are trying to find a better life, tensions that have historically strained both sides might gradually ease, he said.
"I think we would score a number of points by acknowledging and supporting their cravings for a better life," Ostebo said. "I think that's something that could ease the tense relationship that has been between the Muslim world and the West."
One country whose relationship with the United States has come under scrutiny following bin Laden's death is Pakistan. Though considered a U.S. ally, reports have suggested that Pakistani intelligence has dragged their feet in trying to fight terrorist operations within their own country. The United States' failure, or unwillingness, to notify the Pakistani government of their operation against bin Laden's compound illustrated a sense of distrust shared by the United States toward Pakistan.
Woods said it would be unwise for American politicians to point to Pakistan and argue that they knew about bin Laden's and whereabouts and should have done something differently.
In all likelihood, both the U.S. and Pakistan probably knew where bin Laden was, although the complete truth of the situation won't be fully clear for years, she said.
"I think it's a shame if we have our politicians pointing fingers at Pakistan saying Pakistan must have known," Woods said. "Because we both knew."
Then there's the issue with 2012. Almost immediately after President Obama announced bin Laden's death, political pundits and strategists began weighing in on how such a development would play out at the polls come next November.
Mitchell Norton, President of Alachua County Young Democrats, said it will be tough to attack Obama on terrorism issues following bin Laden's death, but that he may be vulnerable on economic issues and the ongoing divisions between Democrats and Republicans on taxation.
"[Republicans are] still going to want to talk about taxes and the economy," Norton said. "I think that's where the president is going to be most vulnerable, if he's vulnerable at all."
Justin York, vice president of Law School Republicans, acknowledged the fact that despite this victory for the Obama administration, critics would still take their shot at the president.
"I think you're always going to have the implacables," York said. "Even if Barack Obama were to cure poverty and disease and everything bad about the human condition...someone would find something bad to say. If manna were to fall from the sky, it would hit somebody on the head and they'd say he had bad aim."
For the Obama administration, bin Laden's death represents a significant foreign policy trophy, if not the only one, said Michael Bowen, a visiting professor in the history department at UF. Other instances, such as the Nuclear Arms Reduction Pact signed by the United States and Russia in April 2010 and promises to lessen troop presence in Iraq, have been muddled in controversy. This episode, he said, represents a unequivocal win.
Bowen agrees that jobs, not a dead body, will dominate election discussion.
"We can kill 100 al-Qaida members, but if our employment is still above 9 percent, then it's still going to be about the economy," he said.
