Ding Dong, Beezlebub is Dead

I'm having a hard time thinking of something to write at the moment.

I think it is Osama's fault. He's everywhere and he's all I can think about.

I'm not sure why. It's all so remote. I heard they dumped his body in the sea. They honored his Islamic traditions, washed his body, wrapped him in a shroud, said a prayer. I wonder who attended his funeral. Who helped with the arrangements. What boatman guided the ship out among the swelling mounds of the sea to release him.

I know what it feels like when history is happening. The other night as we readied for bed, my husband's phone lit up and he ran for the stairs saying, "It's something that affects us all, well not 'us' personally, but people as a whole."

And as the television clicked on, I could see my favorite CNN crew was frantic, excited. Headlines are in ALL CAPS when things are IMPORTANT. Out in front of the White House, students from the nearby college and others, gathered to climb trees. I could see a couple cheerleaders in the crowd, doing some kind of clapping ditty. I wanted them to get off their friends' shoulders and sit down.

It was unnerving. Our president standing in front of the podium. The cameras were still and in a close-up. I know they wanted us to feel like we were personally being delivered a message: You are all safe now. You can relax. We got the boogey man. 

And it seems like people ate it up right? Even Rush Limbaugh praised my guy for his terrorist-hunting capabilities. I felt like a great bunch of Americans think this: The War on Terror is Over. (Isn't that weird to have a WAR on TERROR, feels like such a circle to me...WAR TERROR War Terror war terror, isn't it all the same, isn't War full of Terror?)

Yet, I guess that makes me happy that people feel like that though--that they want to end it. People need conclusions. If this death has provided the Symbolism we need to get out of Afghanistan then So Be It.

It's weird though, some Americans are acting like this is all they were waiting for all along. That now we can wipe our brow from worry and sleep at night because we have destroyed The Enemy. As if this death were the ultimate goal all along.

I'm not crying over this execution, don't get me wrong. September 11th was mass murder and the worst kind of evil. I can't shake the sick way I felt that morning as we watched the tiny black human-shaped shadows jump out of those windows when the towers fell.

However, the quick move to 'close this chapter' seems disingenuous to me. To me, it seems like a weakly transparent attempt to shirk accountability for what's happened over the past 10 years. Frankly, it feels childish. A bully on the playground who keeps declaring that he's "winning."

I don't know. I guess whatever it takes to put an end to this endless drama. I wish we could be classier about the whole thing. Less primitive. Less about chanting "USA! USA! USA!" in some creepy way from the treetops.

I want our people home. That's what I want. That would make me climb trees and shake down leaves and yelp into the air. I want to stop worrying about the endless friends and bloggers and people who have people who have sons and daughters "over there." The loved ones who keep missing people, losing people, losing lives. Because that's what war accomplishes: empty seats at the dinner table. That's the reality; that's the microcosm. The ideologies bring us there, but every time those ideas are shattered into sobbing broken hearts. War IS Terror.

I don't know.

I didn't need Osama dead to call an end to the 'War on Terror.' I hate that the whole thing has been 10 years thus far. It makes me sick to think that is all some Americans wanted was One Guy Dead. And now that they have stood over his dead body and spit into the sea as he drifted off, that they're ready to move on. That that's all it took for their battle cry of "We've Won!"

I can't help but wonder,
Have we?