Closure on Usama Bin Laden

I have not posted recently because of other commitments - professional, personal, and academic.  But I learned today at a farewell luncheon for a friend here in Canberra that UBL was dead.  I wanted to write something to mark this moment.  Some may think this over the top but frankly, I have earned some forbearance.

Since 2001 my life - and especially that of my wife Debbie - has been affected by UBL's actions.  I volunteered for active duty in 2001 precisely because of 9/11.   I was told I might be "too old" but I did not accept that.  I thereafter deployed in November 2002 to Kuwait and then Iraq in the liberation of March 2003 in association with the Global War on Terror.  I saw  things there which haunt me still.  I - and Debbie - are still paying both emotionally - and physically - for the events of the last 10 years.  I have not spoken much of this except to my closest  family members and friends - but our lives were changed forever. I spoke of this at my retirement from the Marine Corps Reserve in late September 2009 at the ceremony at my home in Alexandria VA.  Tonight, we have some closure.

Having seen death at close range, I do not rejoice in the the death of any man, however deserving it may well be.  But if there was ever a justifiable act of execution, this was it.  There is little glory in war.  It is ugly, filthy, and shocking. But sometimes it is necessary.  This was.

All of us should sleep well tonight, yet remain vigilant.  I am no flag-waver.  I leave that to the Sunshine Patriots in front of the White House and in Times Square at this moment.  I have been doing this since I was 17, despite its unpopularity from 1976 onwards until it became fashionable during the Gulf War of 1990-91 and then post-9/11. I am now nearly 52.  I think of my best friend Christopher Roosa in Iraq at this very moment risking his life and ask you to spare a prayer for him.  But I also ask all of you to think of the long years of anonymous effort on the part of intelligence professionals and Special Operations Forces who work in silence and the dark and give thanks for them.  All of us can sleep peacefully at night because they man the wall and do the things that most of us would cringe from - but they do it for us.  And gladly, for little reward.  Think of that the next time your Congressman rails against the "bloated" Federal employment establishment - many of those people work for intelligence agencies.

So remember today and give thanks for those that willingly do what must be done, despite the costs, both visible and invisible, for all of us.  Spare a thought for them as you fall asleep in your bed tonight, without fear for the events of the morning.

Semper Fidelis,

Charlie/Chuck
COL USMCR (Ret)