Osama bin Laden is Still Dead

Buoy and I are exhausted.  Last night while perusing the Internet about 9pm Central Time, I read on my homepage (CNN.com) the president was going to make a very important announcement from the White House in about a half an hour.

Now, any Army wife will tell you when the president makes an unscheduled announcement late night on a Sunday, it's usually a bad thing.  Well, it may not be a "bad" thing, but it's definitely something that directly affects you.  My Husband and I waited patiently for the president's speech and we speculated what this "dramatic national security event having nothing to do with Libya," as Wolf Blitzer said, could be.  I thought Joe Biden died and that's why so many people had to be notified before Mr. Obama could come on the air.

 As the specified time for the announcement came and went, the producers at CNN decided to break the news the president would later elaborate on...Osama bin Laden was dead.  A group of special ops and/or Navy SEALS (I've heard both) entered the mansion where he's been hiding for what may have been years and shot it up for about 40 minutes.  A woman attempted to shield bin Laden and was shot.  His 19-year-old-son was shot.  Apparently the soldiers offered bin Laden a chance to surrender; he refused and opened fire with an automatic weapon (this I'm not entirely sure of...I wouldn't fault the soldiers for shooting an unarmed fugitive, but I know why they're saying it if it's not true).  The soldiers shot him at least once in the head.

They recovered his body after another woman at the compound concurred it was bin Laden.  Taking it to a US ship, they proceeded to positively confirm his identity with DNA (Huh.  Kinda wish police stations had that kind of technology for rape kits).  Osama bin Laden was then given a "proper Muslim burial at sea."  I don't know about that part either, but at this point I'm pleased enough with the success of the mission and the lack of American casualties that I don't care about white lies like the government keeping a terrorist's body.

I wept with relief as I watched people gather in front of the White House to celebrate.  I texted almost everyone in my phone contacts and made My Husband call his mom.  I wanted to shout the news from our balcony; I wanted to knock on every door in the building.  I like the fact that so many of my peers heard the news first from me.  It stems from some journalistic spark still burning inside me, I guess.

And so the conversation turns to what will come next.  I'm sure terrorism will continue...in fact I think it will get worse before it gets better.  But considering the amount of information the soldiers recovered from the compound (if it was safe enough to hide bin Laden just think about the records kept there as well) and the rage stemming from the murder of their leader, I hope people will get sloppy enough to get caught.

I'm trying not to get too excited, but this could mean the end of our deployments.  No Afghanistan...please God, no Afghanistan.

But life continues.  My Husband left about 3am for a week of overnight field exercises.  May and June are full of field exercises for us.  He'll have weekends off, for what that's worth. 

We stayed up all night last night watching the coverage of bin Laden's death.  The celebrations reminded me of some of the video from September 11 when Islamic fundamentalists passed out candy in the streets, danced, sang and shouted with joy at our destruction.  Life is very strange right about now.

So Buoy and I spent today schlepping around after I got home from my shift at the shelter, attempting to recover from an exceptionally emotional weekend.  I've never cried so much about complete strangers, both good and evil events, in my entire life. 

Another Day, Another Online Discovery

In my internet travels this weekend I came across an organization dedicated to "connecting the civilian and military worlds."  In the days of pop stars' plea deals and political posturing making headlines instead of our men and women overseas, it's nice to discover websites like this one.  They sponsor billboards and television ads to remind civilians there are two conflicts going on and soldiers and their families are still sacrificing.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Entertainment Section as much as the next person.  Probably more so since I'm so into the movie/television/theater scene.  But it's difficult to comprehend that in 2006, almost one third of American students polled couldn't find the STATE OF LOUISIANA on a map of the United States...half couldn't find Mississippi (I don't even want to think about the brain hemorrhaging caused by looking for Iraq or Afghanistan).  But I guarantee you 100% of those kids could name the four main characters in Sex & the City.

And I know the whole point of My Husband's service is so that little Iraqi girls and boys have the opportunity to learn about geography or which Jimmy Choo sandals go with which one night stand, but one would think the approximately 5,000 hours kids spend in schools each year would ensure something scholastic stuck in their little brains. 

Anyway, special thanks to Operation Never Forgotten for this photo and all the good work they're doing for military members and their loved ones.