Osama’s death gives us closure

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Troy Patton (The Inquirer)

Troy Patton

I think most people remember where they were that fateful morning in 2001 when the United States changed forever.  The Sept. 11 attacks shattered our confidence as a nation.  It scared us, showed us that we could be vulnerable.

But just as in every action movie, it all came back to one man.  Like a demented case of “Where’s Waldo,” the U.S. has spent the past decade using all of its available resources hunting down one man to bring him to justice.

It is no surprise that his death at the hands of SEAL Team Six was met with the same fervor and intensity that was put into finding him.

But has killing him stopped the war?  Are there still troops overseas and people dying in Afghanistan and Iraq every day, soldier and civilian alike?  Is our country still torn between our need to feel safe and secure, and our need to be free from things like the Patriot Act and invasive organizations like the Transportation Security Administration?

The answer is yes, to all of these things.

So what did we accomplish when Bin Laden was shot dead in his compound in Pakistan? What did we accomplish when special forces operatives killed an aging man who was dependent on dialysis?

We got closure. Every person who lost a loved one, or who saw the towers fall, can go to sleep knowing the man who ordered it was dead.

Let’s face it, as barbaric as it sounds, this was the way we wanted it to end.  We didn’t want a trial.  We didn’t want to give him a stage to perform on anymore.  We wanted him dead, and that’s what we got.

In the end his death changed very little.  There will be others to take his place, and there will be people out there still thinking of ways to do us harm, but for now, the story of Osama Bin Laden has been brought to violent end.  The man responsible for the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil is dead. A long 10 years later, the “good guys” got the “bad guy.”