Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a message to the Afghan Taliban that they can't beat us, so they might as well join us. "You cannot wait us out, you cannot defeat us, but you can make the choice to abandon al Qaeda and participate in a peaceful, political process," Clinton said. The killing of Osama bin Laden shows America will keep "relentlessly pursuing the murderers who target innocent people," Clinton said.

As President Obama said Sunday night--and reiterating what his predecessor George W. Bush said repeatedly after 9/11--Clinton cited the thousands of Muslims that bin Laden had murdered and said he was "motivated by a violent ideology that holds no value for human life or regard for human dignity."

Clinton also thanked Pakistan for putting "unprecedented pressure" on al Qaeda--interesting given reports that bin Laden was hiding out in a compound that was a four-minute drive from Pakistan's main military academy, as ProPublica's Eric Umansky observes. In fact, The New Yorker's Steve Coll suggests Pakistani was helping bin Laden hide out. But the secretary of state insisted that the U.S.'s relationship with Pakistan remains strong.

"In Pakistan, we are committed to supporting the people and government as they defend their own democracy from violent extremism. Indeed, as the president said, bin Laden had also declared war on Pakistan. He had ordered the killings of many innocent Pakistani men, women and children. In recent years the cooperation between our governments, militaries and law enforcement agencies increased pressure on al Qaeda and the Taliban. And this progress must continue. And we are committed to our partnership."

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Elspeth Reeve