Hitler. Stalin. Mao. Saddam.

Although technically nothing more than just four short surnames, they are much more. Their connotative meanings shared by people throughout the world. Above all, they represent murderous dictators whose respective anti-Semitism, economic collectivization, communist purges and Sunni sectarianism caused the deaths of tens of millions of people — primarily citizens of their own countries.

Thankfully — whether due to suicides, a natural death or an execution — these men who have so profoundly and negatively influenced the last century’s worth of history are no more. Many other evil dictators still exist, of course, and unfortunately always will. Yet there is only one whose name is as powerful as these men’s and who has influenced the present — and likely a great deal of the future — in an equivalent manner.

This man, as you might have guessed, is Osama bin Laden, the man who organized the deaths of 2,752 innocent Americans on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and the man who, for most of the world, personifies the Islamic fundamentalism that seeks the deaths of innocents.

Now, as the eighth anniversary of the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan approaches, we are again reminded of the fact that Osama bin Laden lives — a fact that, fairly or unfairly, represents a failure of the U.S. military for both Americans and foreigners alike.

Last Friday, in the wake of a German-initiated airstrike that killed hundreds of Afghan civilians, bin Laden demanded European nations withdraw their troops from Afghanistan. In his words, “End injustice and withdraw your soldiers. One of the greatest injustices is to kill people unjustly, and this is exactly what your governments and soldiers are committing under the cover of the NATO alliance in Afghanistan. An intelligent person does not waste his children and wealth for the sake of a gang in Washington.”

This came just a few weeks after bin Laden directly addressed President Barack Obama in a speech marking the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Beginning by justifying the attacks, he stated that “The cause of our disagreement with you is your support to your Israeli allies who occupy our land of Palestine” — support which “led us to carry out the events of 9/11.” He likened the Obama administration’s policies to those of the Bush administration, and concluded, “If you end the Afghan war, so be it, but otherwise we will continue the war of attrition against you. You are waging a hopeless and losing war, a war in which the end is not visible on the horizon.”

So what should we take bin Laden’s words, or more specifically his existence, to mean?

Very little, according to some. “He may have eluded justice and the long reach of the world’s most powerful military force,” wrote Time Magazine journalist Tony Karon, but bin Laden is now “a marginalized, abject nonentity.” According to Karon, he “leads a couple of hundred desperate men,” and the “once would-be leader of a latter-day caliphate” now lives a life of “duck and cover at a political address otherwise known as oblivion.”

As Jeremy Binnie, a terrorism analyst, added, “You might interpret [bin Laden’s message to Obama] as a sign of weakness, the suggestion being they don’t really want to fight the U.S.” Another terrorism expert, Evan Kohlmann, added that he was surprised bin Laden’s message was a mere 11–minutes long, and thought the anniversary of Sept. 11 would have merited “something more ground breaking and significant.”

Some feel differently. CNN’s Peter Bergen, for one, expressed that bin Laden is far from insignificant and is likely living quite comfortably in a home — not, as many suppose, in a cave in Pakistan’s mountains — as evidenced by his clean pressed clothing and the electrical lighting illuminating him in his video addresses.

In a speech delivered a week ago, President Obama demonstrated that he still remembers the importance of bin Laden as well. As he stated, a “tightly focused war strategy” in Afghanistan will help with the hunt for the elusive bin Laden, and Obama added that he intends to pursue the original goal in Afghanistan: al-Qaida and its leader.

Whatever the result of the coming deliberations — which take place over several weeks — dealing with the U.S. strategy and troop numbers in Afghanistan, Obama has it right. Even if the United States throws in the towel in Afghanistan — something that other powerful occupiers of the nation have been forced to do — it can not let bin Laden be forgotten.

Whether he lives each day in fear or is still the primary strategist behind al Qaida’s actions, bin Laden has accomplished a great deal. Not only did he sacrifice a mere 19 terrorists to kill nearly 3,000 innocent Americans eight years ago, but he has also baited the United States into spending — and arguably, wasting — a great deal of blood and treasure in Afghanistan.

And his punishment thus far?

Nothing.

He lives, and by doing so he offers other murderous fanatics, from Islamic fundamentalists to African warlords and other heavy-fisted dictators, inspirational proof that they too can get away with mass murder.

Our military has accomplished much in Afghanistan and Iraq, but there is still plenty to do. Adding bin Laden to the list of the world’s worst deceased dictators would be a worthy consolation.

Steve Adams is a graduate student in journalism and mass communication from Annapolis, Md.