Thoughts On Osama's Demise

So we got Osama. I had almost forgotten about him; he had faded into irrelevance.

Almost.

When I drove to New York last summer and the skyline came into view across the river, there was that emptiness where the Twin Towers used to be. At times like that, or when the anniversary of 9/11 comes around each year, that's when it all comes crashing back. I remember the pain, the horror, the desire for vengeance against this man who killed so many innocent people on that cloudless, brilliant day in September.

In the beginning I thought we'd get him fast. There was so much anger, so many people seemed willing to work around the clock to track him down, I thought they'd get him before Christmas. I expected he'd be shot dead in a firefight in some Afghan valley, probably running for his life from the soldiers bearing down on him.

It didn't happen. Now, with the revelation that he was hiding out less than an hour's drive from the capital of Pakistan, in a town where many retired Pakistani generals live, it seems likely that he got help from people in high places. I won't be surprised if the computer files that were taken from his house have the names of high-ranking Pakistani officials on them. Somebody had to be protecting this man, whether because of ideology or payoffs, for him to avoid capture this long.

My religion tells me it's not right to rejoice in the death of anyone, even someone as evil as Osama bin Laden, so I didn't go out and celebrate when I heard the news. I was somber, thinking of all the families that were shattered by the deaths of loved ones on that September day. I thought of how our innocence was lost as a country, symbolized for me by the way my children acted when I picked them up from school that day. They ran out to the car and they kept looking up, afraid that a jet plane would fall out of the sky on them.

I thought of the people who have been working relentlessly for ten years to track down bin Laden and all of his cohorts, to bring a measure of justice to the victims of terror everywhere.

And I thought: Job well done. The mission is not finished, but still, job well done.

 

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