I hate to say it but I am NOT dancing

I am not cheering.

I am not going USA...

OBL is dead...

For the record on Sept 11, 2001 I was at Navy Housing in Hawaii. My husband was on a Western Pacific Patrol. That is when sis called, about what is going on in NYC... it was five in the morning local time. To say that I was a little sleepy...

We had no way to know that they'd be involved in operations within 72 hours... I just knew that a regular, WESPAC became a war patrol. Nor did I know that he'd have two war patrols almost back to back... one of them to initiate operations against Iraq... and trust me Pearl WAS quiet after the fleet left.

For us it just another day... even if an important target is dead.

Nor do I expect the troops to come home either.

and was soundly thrashed for this opinion.

Guess that's what passes for "pride" and "discourse" hereabouts now...

Jingo is not exclusive to the RW... it is human nature... hedges, war a force that gives us meaning... should be required readying.

I really thought he had been dead, for quite a while.

looked so gaunt in some of the pictures from way back. I had thought it was something about Gaddafi.

and I'm a New Yorker who watched the Towers go down that day, knew people who died and were injured in the attack, lost my job due to massive post 9/11 layoffs and was terrified for over a year that it was going to happen again at any moment. Yet, I just can't get excited about this. I guess I have been really convinced that he's been dead for years. I thought that's why the Bush Administration couldn't haul him in.

I must have missed it... reading again... nope, not there. Huh.

with so many deaths... Thank you for posting...

I am benignly disinterested in the action itself (almost to the point of complete emotional detachment from it), yet find myself morbidly curious regarding the various reactions and counter-reactions.

Very true

But just like you, I'm not coming down on them for their dance either.

Clearly your point of view is that of someone keenly aware of military action... and the need to remain cool and collected, and the ability to look at things without the kind of emotion that would make someone dance. We need that in people, IMHO.

I have a problem with those who think all the troops should come home right now because of this one death. I think it shows a lack of depth of knowledge... hell, I have very little personal knowledge of military action and I get it, so it pains me to see troop withdrawal called for as if it were the next natural course of action.

I need a nap.

The wars will carry on as usual.

What, if anything will change?

I'm not dancing either but I am not shedding any tears.

Edit: I won't begrudge others for feeling the way they are, celebratory or not.

Nor have I been inspired to wave a flag for Team USA or do high kicks and cheers. I watched 9/11 from my roof, I live close enough that I could see people jump from windows. The event left me with PTSD, leaving me permanently with psychological scars.

For all we know Osama could have been on ice for the last few years. Whether he died 3 years ago or Captain America took him out last night, doesn't matter to me.

I fear the blowback, I fear that all of this will rationalize and justify the abhorrent things we did in Gitmo and Abu Graib as the history writers and screen writers create their blockbuster movies and best sellers off the script delivered to us last night. Nope, don't feel like dancing either -- something must be wrong with my kool aid.

firehorse. Thanks for weighing in. Sympathies for your PTSD from 9-11. I know what it is like. Not easy. It's not so easy to heal scars on the emotional psyche with a single act of vengeance, however well-deserved.

Yep, the history writers and screen writers are at work as we speak...resurrecting Osama for his Hollywood appearance.

July.

we let him remake america into the land of the afraid. we let fear and hatred become the new norm. we let the government usurp our laws to "protect" us from a undefined "war on terror". we have have lost over 5 trillion dollars in the last 10yrs on the wars that needed not to be fought.we failed to listen to why he did what he did and we failed to understand why he said it. now he is dead and his ideas still are alive. if we think because he is gone those who wish us dead will walk away.

i am relieved that we have a president that will do what needs to be done when it comes to justice. it may not be the justice that we would like but it seems it is the eye for an eye that is justified in both religions. i am glad we have a president that understands the what it means to directly order the death of another human being.

yes it is another day..another day that is just a bit brighter.

but it became security theater... in so many ways... that it was tragic, is tragic.

If something good comes out of is should be the end of this new McCarthy era.

(Yes terrorism is real, no we have not dealt with it in an adult manner as a nation, partly because those we elected chose to use it for their own goals)

I think the OP is just trying to one-up other DUers.

would likely be cause for attack.

She implies that she'd like it if his death brought positive change, but doubts it from personal experience.

I've followed her posts, and she's not about "one-upping"

But tempers are high, and reactions are quick. I'm sure you don't mean ill-will.