The killing of Osama bin Laden gives Americans the victory they needed in the fight against al-Qaeda. It marks what psychotherapists call a point of closure. For Barack Obama it is a triumph that ushers in a moment of strategic opportunity. The US president will never have a better chance to seek a political resolution to the war in Afghanistan.

Mr Obama has perhaps exaggerated his personal role in the cornering of bin Laden. US forces had been hunting the al-Qaeda leader since before the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in September 2001. More than once they had got close. It was time that they had some luck.

For all that, Mr Obama will reap the political dividend. The chaos that followed the invasion in Iraq and the quagmire in Afghanistan seemed to testify to America’s diminished power. Now the US has shown that it retains the capacity and resolve to strike its enemies with deadly effect.