Takedown
It's been about an hour since we first started hearing the news of Osama Bin Ladin's death. Scanning through the major networks, the first thing that everyone was talking about (in the absence of any facts from the White House) was the feelings of the correspondents, which is irritating at the best to times, and also not "news". The President's speech was measured and more or less even, considering how close he must have been to high-fiving the Joint Chiefs of Staff and such when the news finally came through. After all this has been a major goal of US policy for almost a decade. Once again he shows himself to be the classiest guy in the room. I did start to feel uneasy, though, with the crowd gathering outside the White House, waving flags and chanting "USA! USA!". If I didn't know better, I would have thought we were seeing video from Tehran, circa 1985. Since when have we been the sort of people who behave like this? Sure, we're all feeling relieved at the figurative end of a chapter in American history but it's unseemly to be so over the moon at the news of a person's death isn't it? Especially when it most likely won't change the course of actual events on the ground. It's not like we leave Afghanistan tomorrow on the news of Bin Ladin being dead.
Lots of blood and treasure lost on getting this guy. Let's hope we reap some benefits for our effort.