Victories on this scale are rare and yet here we are in this moment, a moment promised, imagined, and perhaps abandoned over these last ten years but real tonight. Osama Bin Laden is dead.
"I can report to the American people & the world that the US has conducted an operation that has killed Osama bin Laden.”
This is not a victory for this President, or any one person. This isn’t about Democrats or Republicans. It is about the approximately 3,000 people who died on September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and in a field in Pennsylvania. Firefighters, Cops, and Emergency Medical Technicians; those who ran in, and the innocents who could not run out.
This is about the hijacked passengers of those planes and everyone who is connected to or touched by the horrors of 9/11. This is about the US Military, our soldiers and their families, those lost to war and those broken by it. It's about the costs of war, the pierced innocence of "collateral damage" and it is about our allies, this world that rose when we bent a knee for an instant and came to the defense of freedom.
“Justice” is a popular word tonight, with the President saying “Justice has been done” but the death of this one man, Osama Bin Laden is not the full measure of justice that is unattainable because this score can never be settled and the time and memories, the lives of those taken can never be restored. But it is something that undoubtedly makes this earth better, and perhaps eases the grief of the families of those who lost so much on 9/11 and after offering them a small bit of closure.
This world is different tonight and we know not what comes next, what comes in response. It is okay to fear that but perhaps we might in this moment suspend cynicism, push that fear aside, and wrap ourselves in patriotism, unity, the afterglow of a tremendous achievement, and this rare bit of good news.
For the full text of President Obama's statement please check out Ryan Witt's story here, Ryan also has a tremendous slideshow up displaying some of the images of Americans from Washington, Ground Zero, and across the nation celebrating this momentous moment in our history.
More than anything though I'd like you to take a moment tonight to reflect on the events of 9/11 and view the pictures, read through the names, and visit some of the tribute pages of those lost on 9/11 and during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
