By Craig Andresen on May 1, 2011
Bin Laden is killed…dead…hiding no more, making no more videos, taunting us…no more. Was it all worth it?
The thousands of lives of US service men and women and the effect of their loss on those left behind, the toll upon the wounded and their families, the billions upon billions of dollars spent on war, the untold billions spent on security measures…was it worth it?
Make no mistake, now that the scourge himself is gone from the face of the earth, pulling out and leaving Afghanistan NOW would be a grave error. This war, the war on terror is FAR from finished. FAR FROM IT!
Was it worth it?
The war on terror, because of those who wish to put an end to freedom of people around the world, those who followed this waste of humanity, those who splintered off from his command and those we have yet to identify, will remain out there, planning and plotting to kill innocent men, women and children.
In fact, the death of Bin Laden will cause an upgraded security concern here in our nation and in nations around the world. Rightly so, as this world is a dangerous place.
Was it worth it?
Nature abhors a vacuum; terrorists love them and will seek to fill the void left by Bin Laden. The question is; how “in control” was Bin Laden? It seems certain that his power had been diluted over the nearly 10 years since that fateful day in 2001. He ran, he hid, he moved daily, his control structure had been fractured over and over again by deaths and arrests of his minions.
The greatest impact, in OUR favor, if one exists, is in the psychology of the kill. The head, is only a façade is dead and was killed BY American soldiers in a covert attack. That will weigh on those who surrounded Bin Laden.
As surely as those who followed him are now taken aback by his killing, others will no doubt use him as a martyr to their cause whether or not they ever stood with him, near him or followed his orders in the past. This is how they work. This is how they think. They WILL use his death to recruit, to build momentum, to enthuse their dark and bloody intensions.
Was it worth it?
The sad truth is that thousands more will perish in the name of Bin Laden. Thousands more will suffer life altering wounds both physical and mental because of Bin Laden. It will happen, mark my words. They WILL remain at war with us, as they have for the better part of 20 years. Radical Islam will use this to boost their cause and bring their brand of darkness upon the innocent and control those who live in fear of reprisal from them. They will not stop. Not now…not ever.
Was it worth it?
How many attacks on US citizens did he command? Kovar Towers, the first attack on the World Trade Center, USS Cole, 9-11…thousands of our own died at his command and none of them will be forgotten. Thousands more died in the hunt and subsequent war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq which was undertaken due to other direct causes but both comprised the war on terror.
It was never all about one person, it was and is about an ideology but…After what Bin Laden has done to ask was it worth it puts in question the validity of those who have fought and died and those lives of innocents everywhere and therefore is a question which can have only one honest answer.
Freedom is NEVER free.
Was it worth it?
HELL YES!!!
