Call me a Pollyanna if you wish. (I've been called much worse.) But I think the Pooh-Bahs of Punditry and various other political prognosticators are missing the full import of the psychological effect that the killing of Bin Laden will have on America. The country has been suffering from a form of mass PTSD since 9/11.
Our political leaders have devolved into bitter partisan enemies. The talk of wars and future wars has lingered on for almost ten years. We have watched our economy be raped and plundered by the greedy bastards on Wall Street and the big corporations. Battles over "moral values" and social issues continue unabated. As news of the Cheney/Bush abandonment of human rights, the trashing of the Geneva Conventions, and the wide-spread use of torture spread around the globe, America became a nation shunned and despised. Americans lost their jobs, their homes, and their hope for a better tomorrow.
The killing of Osama bin Laden has been a jolt to the system. America awoke Monday morning to the news that by direct order of the president, US forces had struck inside Pakistan and successfully removed the principal icon of terror from the world. They know that this does not mean the end of the threat of terrorism in this country or anywhere else. But it has signaled that America is not the impotent feckless shadow of its former greatness. We can still accomplish great things. America was built on the foundations of hope and the promise of a new beginning. These foundations were reinforced in the small hours of Monday morning in the hills of Pakistan.
America took a collective deep breath on Monday. And with it came a sense of the possible once again. The killing of bin Laden reinforces the American belief that we can accomplish anything we put our strength and effort into, no mater the time it takes, nor the obstacles we face. This sense of the do-able, I think, will find itself extending to the economy and jobs. When we feel positive about our country, we feel positive about the future.