The death of Osama bin Laden over the weekend was a feel good moment for the country, the likes of which we have not seen since the national pain caused by the 9-11 attacks bin Laden organized bound us together in a common cause in 2001.
For a few minutes it was good to feel united again.
Unfortunately, and not surprisingly, the moment was all too brief. Bin Laden’s corpse had barely settled on the bottom of the Arabian Sea before partisans began scrambling for their share of the credit and denigrating the efforts of others.
We are sick to death of the divisive rhetoric thrown wildly about by various political persuasions. Not only does it divide us, we feel it denigrates the actual honest to God heroes in this instance; the men and women of America’s Armed Forces, who have been in the field, doing the duty they have been called to do for eight years now.
We salute the Navy Seal Team 6, who Sunday night did what they were trained to do better than any other fighting force in the world; attack and defeat America’s enemies wherever they are found.
For the moment, on this occasion, we put criticism aside and commend both former President Bush for committing us to the fight against the terrorists who attacked us, and President Obama for taking decisive action when the option was presented to him.
Precisely because this is a free country, talking heads and political partisans, most of whom have never fired a shot in anger, are free to continue their unseemly scramble for crumbs of glory, but the honor rightfully belongs to the fighting men and women who do the dirty work we ask of them.
