I was at the Mets/Phillies game with some friends on Sunday night, suffering through another blown save by our bullpen,when a female Phils fan near me started mumbling something about seeing that Usama bin Laden is dead on her phone. I went out of my way to belittle this individual, insisting that she must be reading from The Onion or intoxicated… or both. When I tried to use my smart phone to check CNN, the Internet appeared to be down… this probably had something to do with the fact that 45,000 other people in the stadium were doing the same thing. After making several phone calls with no success, I was finally able to wake my mother up at 10:51 pm to get her to confirm the news and share in some celebration over the phone. The scene that took place in that stadium as people began to confirm what had to have seemed to many as fantasy or a mistake I will never forget:
How big of a deal is bin Laden’s death for this country? Phillies fans were exchanging high-fives with me – and I was in Mets attire. Yeah, I’m stunned, too. I’m relatively certain that an event like that will not happen again. The Mets winning in 14 innings was just icing on the cake – a fortuitous ending to a night that already included an event that most Americans thought would never happen.
My gut reactions to the bin Laden killing (and I mean no offense to anyone reading this who disagrees, as always):
1) Our military and CIA deserve great praise for pulling this off. They were the ones putting in the countless hours gathering intelligence, they were the ones risking their lives in the field, and ultimately it was a courageous crew of 24 US Navy Seals that went in and pulled off one of the most stunning missions in American history. To fly 4 helicopters into Pakistan, be dropped into the compound of the most wanted man in the world, and to successfully pull this off with no casualties on our end shows how impressive our military is and continues to be.
2) Credit goes to BOTH President Obama and President Bush. Yes, it was Obama that made the decision to go with the Navy Seal incursion instead of using a drone, and it was he that successfully balanced so many things going on over the last few days all while knowing what order was about to be carried out – but President Bush began this war against al-Qaeda, and it was he that pushed the intelligence community and the military to work together to bring bin Laden to justice. Congratulations to both men.
3) To the conspiracy people out there – anyone who knows me knows that I love a good conspiracy (pretty sure Oswald didn’t do that alone) – but let’s think about this… Most people thought bin Laden would never be caught. It was a dead issue. No one blamed Obama for not catching him. There is absolutely no way they would have reentered bin Laden’s name into the nation’s psyche if they didn’t kill him. The sea burial or the lack of photos (as of now) mean nothing to me other than our desire to try to limit outrage towards us in the Muslim world. You can argue that decision all you want – it doesn’t mean we didn’t kill him.
4) To those who say we shouldn’t applaud the death of bin Laden – he is an unrepentant murderer who preached hatred, funded attacks against civilians, and went to his grave using a female to protect himself. He promoted violence against Christians AND Muslims – he was not a religious leader or fanatic – he was a terrorist. His death removes the leader of a dangerous terrorist organization. The idea that we should forgive him is ridiculous. He never asked for forgiveness – he only asked for more bloodshed from his enemies. Should we have captured him and put him on trial? No. The sheer logistics of that trial would have been ridiculous, and he very well could have died in a cell long before a verdict of guilt arrived.
5) I would hope this permanently ends the vast majority of the discussion permeating the political discourse in this country involving Obama. You know EXACTLY what I mean – the idea that he is a closet Muslim of Kenyan birth who is soft on national defense, un-American, too dumb to hold office or get into Harvard, and actively working to subvert the constitution and bring down America. The man gave the kill order on bin Laden – the label “soft on defense” no longer applies. Let’s please, from now, on stick to disagreeing with his policies – I’m completely fine with that discussion.
Lastly – those Navy Seals are heroes – I hope we one day find out their identities so that we can give them the recognition they deserve. But all the service members who have taken part in operations against bin Laden and al-Qaeda over the last decade or so are heroes, too – we can’t forget them.
Where Was It 