A Job Well Done

Today is a day of relief, joy, closure and patriotism.

It is also a day of remembrance, sadness and mixed emotions.

But today is a day we are ALL Americans.

First and foremost, let me say that I applaud President Obama for having the balls to sign off on this operation. This mission was clearly well planned and executed to precision. We’ve all been Jack Bauerized to think this sort of stuff happens all the time. But the fact is this could have gone VERY wrong and it didn’t. I also think that the President’s speech was very well done.

I also applaud the CIA for it’s incredible intelligence gathering and it’s relentlessness in finding this monster and bringing him to some sort of justice. I also would be remiss if I didn’t applaud President Bush for helping to make the intelligence community what it is today. His administration completely revamped our intelligence operations and without him and the players he put in place, this would not have been possible. I give President Obama a lot of credit for keeping many of those players in place after his election and for realizing after he took office that he would have to break campaign promises for the betterment of our Nation (most importantly, not closing Gitmo, which is where we were able to gather invaluable information that helped make this mission possible).

President Bush started these wheels in motion, and President Obama dutifully carried them through to fruition. It was a team effort that crossed party lines and deserves full appreciation from ALL Americans.

And of course you have to applaud the dozens of Special Forces soldiers who dropped from helicopters and carried out a mission from which they could not have known if they would come out alive. Their bravery is something I cannot even begin to comprehend. They are the REAL heroes here.

It brings a smile to my face to know that Osama Bin Laden was sitting in this home and knew that his time was up. He KNEW America was there. He knew this was it. Before he met his death he had to feel fear, had to know America was finally there, that we hadn’t given up, and that no matter who was Commander-in-Chief of the United States, he was going to die by OUR hand at a moment of OUR choosing. This, to me, is the greatest victory of them all. He did not die in a cave by a drone strike, or in a pile of rubble by a missile fired from hundreds of miles away without knowing what was coming. He died at the hands of Americans, and he KNEW it was coming.

In may have taken way too long, but if nothing else it shows that no matter how long it takes, we will not waiver in our commitment to bring terrorists to justice and will never lose sight of our goals.

Today I am proud of America, I am proud of President Obama, I am proud of all of our service men and women who risk their lives for our country, and I am proud how we have taken the events of 9/11 and turned them into a way to make our country smarter, stronger, and better prepared for all threats.

We all realize that threats will continue for years to come from Al Qaeda and other factions that fear freedom and democracy. But we have seen in recent months that people in the Middle East desire to be free. Democracy is spreading at a rapid pace through the region and that is no coincidence.

Democrat or Republican, today is a day we should be proud as One Nation. Without President Obama, without President Bush, without Democrats, without Republicans we would not be celebrating this small but immeasurably important victory in the war on terror.

As our President eloquently said last night:

One Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL.