So, Bin Laden is dead...

Disclaimer: This is going to be a highly opinionated entry. Feel free to opine in the comments, as I welcome open debate and believe that peaceful discussion is a great way to exchange ideas. But if you get your underwear all knotted up because of something I say, deal with it.


So, Bin Laden is dead.

I can't help but wonder, if we were to go back to 9 years ago and ask the majority of Americans what they'd be willing to give up in exchange for the death of a terrorist, what do you think they would say?

If we had to spend one million bucks to get a hold of Bin Laden, would you be willing to pay it? How about a billion? One hundred billion? How about 3 trillion dollars? How about the invasion of two countries over the course of nearly a decade resulting in the longest war in US history? How about the death of 5885 of our troops and tens of thousands of Afghanis and Iraqis?

What about the eroding of American freedoms with the passage of the Patriot Act (which 78% of the time is used for conducting drugs raids and not counter-terrorism), the searches conducted by the TSA which have never resulted in the capture of a terrorist but instead have led to children getting stripped in public and pregnant women and the elderly being nearly molested.

How about all this while we have a hurricane that destroys the southern states and an oil spill that contaminates its waters. Don't forget the bank bailout that resulted in golden parachute bonuses for CEOs and 10% unemployment for everyone else.

All that to fight a War On Terror -- a war on an idea. Not on a country or a an army or a group of people, we were trying to crush an idea which we already learned we couldn't do sometime between 1955 and 1975.

What if instead, assuming that the average cost of tuition in America is $30,000 for four years, we had sent 100,000,000 Americans to college for free? Or built a train system? Or built levees in New Orleans? Or insured every American in the country? Or given teachers a raise? Or caught up to every other 'first world' country in the world and lawfully required that every American get 4 weeks paid vacation per work year?

So when I look at all the celebrating taking place because we caught some terrorist that after a decade of war probably doesn't really matter any more, when I look at the lives lost on both sides and the alternatives we could have pursued, I can't help but think about what it feels like to me that America actually accomplished without a bitterness towards the futility of the past decade.

Hurray. We got Osama, who I will agree was essentially evil incarnate. But I can't help but feel we've lost way more than we bargained for to get here after all this time.