I don’t think there is a veteran who ever held a rifle in harm’s way that isn’t envious of the hero who got to see Osama bin Laden’s face as he confronted American vengeance. I imagine bin Laden hearing the English of infidels before he smelled the cordite from their ammunition. He must have seen the strobes of gunfire in the dark. The tinny pops and whines of rounds echoing throughout his building. Sand-speckled boots shuffling toward his door.
We all pacified evil collectively through the MP5s of a few Navy SEALs we will never meet or know.
This morning I exchanged e-mails with friends in Helmand Province. They moved out on mission today as on any other day. Dusty. Tired. Full of resolve, but weary of the new Taliban offensive under way.
Nothing that happened overnight seems to have fazed them. Nothing that lies in wait will faze these warriors either. I pray that they had the chance to see the footage of college students forgoing studying for their finals to join random citizens in clogging the streets of American cities. They chanted “U.S.A.”; they waved flags.
Spontaneous eruptions of patriotism transformed New York City subway passengers into a choir of patriots singing our national anthem. This support has been noticeably absent for the last nine years.
It has been long needed.
We must make sure that this fire of support is not suppressed by apathy, as it was after 9/11. In Osama bin Laden, we have killed a mascot — an icon of terror, but a coward who died as he lived, hiding behind innocent noncombatants.
This war is not over, but I pray that bin Laden’s death has made Americans feel good about fighting it again. May this feeling of victory over evil propel us to continue to destroy the many threats we have yet to face and never forget the valor of those who pull the triggers in our name.
— David Bellavia is a former army staff sergeant who served in Iraq. He is the author of House to House: A Soldier’s Memoir.
Read more from our symposium on bin Laden’s end here.