Osama Been Laden

Wow. What an historic fucking day.

On the one hand I wanted to catch up with Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. On the other hand I drank wine and had no intention of watching The Celebrity Apprentice now that Donald Trump's turned into a fucking birther.

So I was able to stay up to watch the end of The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business before I surfed through both DH and TCA4 and decided to turn off my TV and see if I can get some shuteye. And I did till about half past 9 to a quarter to 10, when Grandmother came home from the casino and woke me up to make sure I was home.

I did want to catch the end of TCA4 and the weekend sports shows that are on Sundays after the news, and I was thirsty as hell, so I finally turned on my TV. The last thing I watched was a public television station, in particular a show about urban planning. When I heard some boring interview, I hit the flipback button. The next-to-last thing I watched was TCA4, so I was listening to the NBC affiliate as I was shielding my eyes so that they could adjust to the sudden flood of light.

But instead of Donald Trump doing his narcissistic thing, I heard Chuck Todd of NBC News. Huh? What's going on now? And then I heard "He ... him ... something happened in Afghanistan ... something happened in Pakistan." The hell? So I put on my glasses; my journalistic background told me something big was happening. And then, when I finally looked at my television, I heard Todd tell Meet The Press host David Gregory, "Osama bin Laden has been killed."

Wow. What a fucking way to wake up from a nap. I truly did not believe that this day would ever come. I thought bin Laden would die a free man, albeit on the run and hunkered in caves in the mountainous regions of Pakistan. It just seemed impossible that we could go into treacherous, inscrutable territory and find and capture and/or kill him. Well, God bless technology. And drones. And intelligence. And special operations forces kicking ass. And the fact that it looks like he was taken out in a huge mansion in what is described as an affluent suburb of Pakistan.

This is not the end, of course. Al-Qaida lives on, and bin Laden's death may spur a new wave of attacks by his followers who want to follow his mentor into martyrdom. But as immature as this may sound, I really do think that a fog has been lifted from this nation now. Osama bin Laden, unfortunately, has set the course for the United States this millennium. We cannot look at safety -- shit, we can't even keep our shows on going through airport security -- the same way as before, and that's because of 9/11, an attack that he gave a final go-ahead on. The blood of hundreds, maybe tens of hundreds, of people is on his hands, a mark of courage and pride to him. And he has thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of acolytes who will pick up the mantle he dropped as he was shot in the head.

Nevertheless, a great evil has been wiped from the dust of the earth. Maybe we should never rejoice in the murder of a human being. But if there was ever one we could, it would be Osama bin Laden. I for one will not lose sleep over this.

I am grateful for the men who pulled off the operation. I also give a shout-out to all the women and men who represent our country as a member of U.S. Armed Forces around the world. And finally, to the families and friends of those killed on 9/11, as well as those bin Laden's responsbie for murdering around the globe all these years, I really do hope there's a measure of peace and closure with this assassination.