Osama Bin Laden is Dead

As someone who still remembers 9/11 in vivid detail, the fear, the anger, the heartbreak, and the national pride, this day holds deep significance for me. I honestly feel that words can’t adequately describe the feelings that I’m experiencing right now. Vindication, joy, national pride, and sadness. Thus this post will attempt to capture a few of the feelings that I’m currently experiencing. Please bear with me:

1. This is a huge victory for the American military and the American people. We set out to make this man pay for his crimes and now, almost 10 years after 9/11, we finally accomplished what we set out to do. After years of war and American lives being shed, we finally made the man who planned the worst attack on the American people pay the ultimate price. Add to that the fact that no Americans were hurt in the operation and it makes this a great moment.

2. Just like September 11th, this is another time for our country to come together. Not in mourning and sadness, but in joy and victory. For today, political parties and petty differences need to be tossed aside. America did this. We did this. Democrats and Republicans, poor and rich, etc. No more Obama sounds like Osama jokes, no more Obama did what Bush couldn’t cracks. Today, we the people of the United States of America are victorious.

3.  The war is not over. Yes this is a huge victory and yes, we deserve to celebrate. However this is one victory, one battle. This war is a war on terror, and terrorism is not vanquished. We can and should expect retaliation. We can and should expect the fighting to continue. We took down a leader. What is yet to be determined is the importance of the leader. Did we take down the equivalent to a general or the equivalent of the Monarch of England. Was Osama the most vital piece of Al-Qaeda leadership or was he more of a ceremonial head? This remains to be seen. Rest assured that our enemies will not relax their efforts to destroy us and we must not relax our efforts to keep this country safe.

4. We are not the ultimate judges of Osama Bin Laden. Yes, we killed him. But what happens now? The same thing that happens to any other man when he dies. I realize this is a touchy subject but I’m attempting to write my feelings so again, forgive me if this offends you. Ultimately, God is the judge of Osama Bin Laden. As someone who strives to show people love, the thought of another man going to hell because he didn’t accept the good news about Jesus is a sad thought. No matter what atrocities this man committed, and the President is right: this man was a mass-murderer, he was not too evil to be forgiven. In all our celebration that an Earthly enemy has been slain, let’s not forget that Osama Bin Laden was another soul that was created by God; another soul that is on its way to hell.

What Do You Think: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Welcome to another edition of What Do You Think. Basically the way this works is that I’ll talk about something that’s been on my mind, throw out a bunch of questions, and you think about it and tell me what you think about the topic and the questions. Ready?

On Saturday the Senate voted to repeal the military’s controversial Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. Thanks to this historic legislation gays will be able to openly serve in the military. Obama has said that he will sign it as early as Wednesday. I realize that many people on both sides of the aisle blindly support or oppose this legislation without actually thinking about it. I personally oppose it. I do think that gays should be allowed to serve in the military but the reason I oppose the legislations is that I think the impact it could have on troop morale is astronomical. The first question I thought of is what do they do for the showers? Obviously the gay members can’t shower with the straight members for the same reason that the males can’t shower with the females. But the gay military members can’t shower with the females because of fears of a straight person pretending they’re gay. So what about setting aside separate units for gay soldiers? To me this sounds like the best answer but something tells me that gays will not be satisfied with this solution. So what do you think? Should gays be allowed to serve in the military? What could it do to troop morale? Should this decision have waited till we are not in the middle of a war? Best case scenario how does the introduction of gays into the military occur? Worst case scenario? What do you think about a separate unit? Are people right in comparing it to allowing African-Americans to serve in the military? If not, how is it different?

I look forward to hearing from you guys in the comments.