My wife and I threw a pretty crazy party Saturday night so I spent all day Sunday trying to recover. When I wasn't eating something I was sleeping. Then I would wake up and eat again. My body was not happy with me at all. Around 9PM PDT I decided to take a look at dKos and see what I missed during the day.
That's when I came across a diary saying that Bin Laden was dead and the US had the body. This being dKos I immediately checked for a "snark" tag. Finding none I start contemplating a stay in rehab because my brain seems to have been severely damaged the previous night. Before making any rash decisions I decided that checking CNN might be prudent. That was when I saw the headline and the crowds cheering in front of the White House. To be honest those first moments made me quite uncomfortable. Cheering the death of anyone seemed a bit creepy to me. But then something struck me about the crowd.
The crowd I was looking at seemed to be composed mostly of kids between the ages of 18 and 22. It dawned on me that most of these kids have lived a life dominated by 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden. Their earliest memories probably revolve around that day and the ensuing panic. I thought about what I remember from 10 years old and earlier, yes that was a lot longer ago for me than them but we can all agree that those years are a sort of blur once you pass puberty. So these kids grew up with an actual boogeyman with footage of his evil attack on their country playing constantly on their TV's. Their parents were scared and the pols stoked that fear at every opportunity.
The boogeyman that dominated their lives was destroyed. Who wouldn't cheer?
My reaction was more muted. Am I happy that he is dead? Yes, I think I am. I'm noty one of those yelling "USA! USA! USA!" but I am still happy that this evil son of a bitch is gone.
I would rather that he were brought in alive and held to account but he made the decision to fight instead of surrender. I know that there are some who find it wrong that we went into a sovereign country to get him but the truth is there was never any other way that we would get him so it really was a choice of attacking his compound or letting him live out his life while planning the murder of more innocents.
And if I am totally honest with myself I know that I am proud of the President, the intelligence community and the military people who carried this out. I have friends who are retired Navy SEALs and they should be proud too. As I watched FOX News and listened to wingnut radio I was actually made even prouder of my President. The GOP and their propaganda machines sounded down right pathetic. They kept talking about how much credit President Bush deserved. All that I could muster for that was thank God President Obama didn't follow the Bush plan.
If he had followed the Bush plan he would have found out where OBL was and then attacked Indonesia.
