May 1st, 2011...

I've kept this blog for a while now, and I've always made it a point to never get political in my postings. I've endeavored to keep my personal views on issues of politics out of this particular public eye.

That will change this evening.

I will also apologize now for the language which I also try to keep out of my postings.

Let me just say that I think May 1st, 2011, is a great day.

Like practically everyone I know, I will never forget where I was when I learned of the attacks of 9/11. It was a Tuesday morning, and I was in bed. It was about 6:00am, and I remember hearing a panicked voice on my answering machine. It was my brother, who was calling from Florida. He was yelling into the phone to wake me, to tell me that the World Trade Center had been attacked. I remember turning on the television and sitting in both utter horror and amazement.

How could such a thing have happened? How is it that some third world jackass was able to conduct what is widely viewed as the single most horrific, and successful, attack on the western world? How is it that this cave dwelling piece of shit was able to all but bring us to our knees?

However it happened, it happened. We identified countless failures in our security as a result, but the reality is that it took the deaths of almost 3,000 Americans, of all colors and faiths, to get us to that point.

As I will never forget where I was on 9/11, nor will I ever forget where I was at 10:42pm on May 1, 2011, while I was in Edmonton, Alberta, when I first learned that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. Not only had he been killed, but US forces had his body. A directed attack in Abbotabad, Pakistan, by United States Special Forces, resulted in the death of who was, and let's be honest here, the most reviled man in modern history.

Bin Laden wasn't hiding in caves in the mountains, but rather in a high-dollar compound in Pakistan. How we learned he was there is something I don't really care about. The fact of the matter is that we found out where he was, and we went in and we killed him.

Payback is, as history shows, a bitch.

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Edmonton, and I'm actually giddy. When I first heard the news, I let out a yell. Could it really be true? Well, it certainly appears so. Osama Bin Laden; the man we have searched for for almost ten years, is dead, and US forces killed him. It also bears mentioning that, during the firefight that killed Bin Laden, not a single US serviceman was injured.

Now, off this blog, I'm pretty critical of Barack Obama. I don't like him. I don't think he should be President. I think he's a neophyte politician who, somehow, snowed enough people to put him in the Oval Office. But, as critical as I can be of the man, I can also give credit where credit is due. I'm proud that my President, whether I like him or not, had the balls to make the move that needed to be made, when it needed to be made. Our Special Forces have proven, once again, that they are a results-driven organization and, even when the task is daunting, they can get the job done.

Kudos to our Armed Forces, and kudos to President Obama.

It sounds cliche to say, especially because I feel this way every day but, today, I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud to call home the country which, in its' own effective way, exacted justice for the deaths of 3,000 people whose only crime was going to work one Tuesday morning.

Now, I assure you, I'm nowhere naive enough to think that "the war on terror" is over. It's not. Lord knows that are enough sick bastards out there who are all too willing to step into Bin Laden's shoes. But Bin Laden was special. Bin Laden was a rock star. Bin Laden was larger than life.

And, tonight, Bin Laden is dead.

And we killed him.

And, for that, I'll go to sleep with a smile on my face tonight...