At 12:25pm (Sydney Time) I began to see messages on Facebook: The president will be speaking tonight about National Security.
My heart dropped. "This is not a good thing" I thought to myself. The President, going on TV on a Sunday night... well outside the normal news cycle... addressing the nation before the 11pm news on the East Coast?
Then, as the minutes whirled away, I frantically looked for websites that would allow me to view the speech. CNN wouldn't let me due to copyright laws, same for MSNBC and others. Luckily, Politico.com did not have such qualms and I settled to see what he was going to say.
Already there was news that Osama Bin Laden (OBL) had been killed. Rumors began to fly. He was killed by missiles a week ago, he was already dead, he was shot in the head, they needed to test his DNA to confirm it was him.
It almost seemed too good to be true. I alerted by co-workers: An Aussie, a kiwi, and a man from Bangladesh. The four of us (from four different countries) talked about OBL, 9/11 and what we were doing nearly 10 years ago.
We sat and watched the President's speech. I am proud that he is my President, even though I do live on the other side of the world now. He struck the right balance for me. We won this battle, but we still need to continue. As my co-workers found out the news, they all seemed to want to come to me, the US Ex-Pat to get my take.
I told them I was glad that it was done on an Islamic Rest day (Islamic countries tend to take Friday and Saturday off), I was glad it was done with prudence, and the time was taken to do it right. I am happy with the reaction from my countrymen and countrywomen.
What I liked the most is that this was not withheld to be splashed on the morning news shows on (US) Monday morning. I was glad that He announced immediately, without the grotesque political game that we saw so often with the Bush Administration. There was no "Mission Accomplished" banner, there was no catch phrase "We got 'em" no "Shock and Awe" crap that made the presidency look like a summer popcorn film.
As more information was released, you can tell that thought went into this. It wasn't a knee jerk reaction, it was deliberate, it was controlled, and it was... professional.
I was thinking all of this as I sat with my co-workers, huddled around a Computer screen, watching the President of the United States say "We killed an Enemy of the World."
It doesn't matter if you live in New York City, Washington DC, a Small town in Alabama, or half way around the world. That speech affected each of us the same way. Relief, and knowledge that this is the first step of moving on.
It's over and we can begin to move on. We should always be prepared, we should never be complacent, but we need to also hold on to what makes America great: Opportunity, Innovation, Giving to the world, and believing in ourselves that we can do awesome things, together.
Thank you President Obama. Thank you to the brave women and men in our military, and thank you to all of those around the world, whose contributions, large and small, have brought us here.