To Kill a Mockingturd...

It was 10:00 PM on Sunday night.  I was exhausted from a long weekend of fun and running around.  I was up in my home office doing some work for a client.  When I finished up, I was coming back downstairs to see if Nichole was still awake.  There she was, sitting on the couch, with a puzzled look on her face.  The President is going to make an announcement at 10:30 she tells me.  What?  On a Sunday night?  That seems odd we both thought.  What the heck could it be?  Speculation started to run pretty rampant on the various channels we flipped through, as we searched for more answers.  Slowly, more and more info started coming in.  As it became more and more clear what was going on, the reporters grins got bigger and bigger, and we realized what was happening.  When President Obama finally walked in front of the camera, we all knew what had happened.  The US had found and killed Osama Bin Laden, the face of Al-Qaida, the mastermind of the September 11th attacks from 10 years ago.  I remember raising my hands to the sky in excitement.  This is, to quote Vice President Joe Biden, a "big fucking deal"!  This man has eluded us for a very long time.  Both Presidents Clinton and GW Bush hunted for him for years, with no luck.  This is big news.

However, here we sit, about 36 hours later, and I'm a little confused.  We were finally able to rid the world of the most wanted terrorist, and we are arguing about who deserves credit?!  We are making this political, or taking sides?!  We are saying that killing a person in response to killing others is wrong?!  I feel like I went to sleep Sunday night and woke up in some confusing, odd place.  What the hell just happened?  The United States of America is responsible for killing the most wanted man in the world, and we aren't allowed to find some peace in that?  We are supposed to be mad at President Obama for not bringing him back to the United States, alive, so he could sit in a jail cell and go on trial?  What should we have done?  We have been after him for many years, what do you suggest we should have done differently? 

This was an amazing job done by the Navy Seals, the CIA and the President and his inner circle.  This was all done in secret, and was executed flawlessly, despite losing a helicopter in the process.  Everyone involved in this deserves tons of credit for not only the planning, but the execution of those plans.  The Navy Seals did an amazing job, putting themselves in harms way like they did.  The CIA, using varying sources for intelligence gathering, deserve high praise.  President Obama, for insisting we don't just blow up the compound, but to make sure we actually got Bin Laden, deserves some credit too.  This was truly a group effort, and it makes me proud to be an American, to know that we worked together to make this happen. 

President Obama did not kill Bin Laden, and I'm not sure where people have heard anyone say that.  For those of you who stayed up late on Sunday to watch his address, he made it very clear what happened.  He never suggested that we got Bin Laden all thanks to him.  In fact, this isn't about President Obama at all.  I would be just as happy if this had happened on former President Bush's watch.  This isn't about politics to me, this is about taking an evil bastard out.  Sadly, there is a large number of people out there that just refuse to say anything good about President Obama.  I would bet my home that if we had done this exact thing 6 years ago, it would be a much different reaction.  I would like to suggest to those of you who are subscribing to the conspiracy theories and following the directive of Fox News, please stop making this political.  This search has been ongoing.  This day was going to come.  Don't be mad that it happened during President Obama's administration.  Be happy that we finally took Bin Laden out, like we've been trying to do for years.

For those of you who are preaching that taking one life for another is wrong, I ask you this: If someone comes in to your home and murders your child or spouse, do you not want justice to be served?  Would you not go to the ends of the earth to protect your family?  Would you just like the police to come and put handcuffs on him and then pay your hard earned tax dollars to have him sit in jail until his term is up?  To that I say, no freaking way!  This is how I see things.  The United States of America is one giant family.  Sure, it's a bit dysfunctional, but what family isn't.  This family needs to stick together, and defend itself.  I'm not a fan of guns, I've made that clear in past posts, but when you mess with my family, I won't rest until you get what you deserve.  We have lost so many great men and women over the years searching for this monster, and I hope, in some way, their families will find even just a little closure.  I know that I, as someone who didn't directly lose a family member, but feels as though I lost thousands of brothers and sisters throughout this process, feels good knowing we took this guy out. 

Will this end the war on terror?  Is the world a safer place without Osama Bin Laden?  No, the war on terror will continue to be fought for the rest of our lives.  I don't think that the world is a safer place without Bin Laden, but it's one less terrorist on the loose.  The face of Al-Qaida is no more.  I'm sure others will rise in his absence, but we need to continue to work diligently to make sure these types of people aren't able to take out more of our family.  Remember how we came together as a country after those awful attacks ten years ago?  We need to do that again.  This country is a great place, and we need to stop politicizing everything, pointing fingers at everyone that doesn't agree with us or look like us, and roll up our sleeves and get to work.  I'm just saying...