aefenglommung (aefenglommung) wrote,
aefenglommung
aefenglommung

Some thoughts on a world without Usama

Congratulations to the Obama administration on finding Usama bin Laden. Congratulations to the Navy SEALs who conducted the raid. This was well done all around.

News reports say that bin Laden was buried at sea. So long as they took photos and such first, so there is no question that he is dead, I think this was the best way to handle things. A bin Laden tomb could have become a source of pilgrimage.

I join with some of my friends at expressing disapproval of the dancing in the streets (who do we think we are, the Palestinians?). Still, some celebration is in order, not for the death of a man, but for a victory in a very long war. Yes, I know that it's not the end of our War on Terror, but it marks the end of a long manhunt for the chief perpetrator of the War: not a full stop, but a semi-colon, perhaps. As Winston Churchill said so long ago, if this is not the beginning of the end, at least it is the end of the beginning.

I think the government should mark the occasion in a week or two by lowering the Threat Assessment from Orange to Yellow, and see how that goes. At some time, somebody has to begin to think how the end of this story writes itself. When and how do we return to Normal? What does Normal mean, any more? Our church lit a candle for prayer, especially for our servicemen, ten years ago. We've lit it every Sunday ever since. Given our military operations around the world, it's going to be a while before we can even think about not lighting that candle; still, we need to think about this.
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