tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-879288156171748202.post4236068283882084769..comments2023-09-01T06:34:47.140-05:00Comments on HazelnutLive: OBL's Death - My TakeAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15712562094088164685noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-879288156171748202.post-60022735356624234682011-06-17T23:22:56.543-05:002011-06-17T23:22:56.543-05:00I was on a silent hallway, guarding the 24 sleepin...I was on a silent hallway, guarding the 24 sleeping teen offenders in the county juvenile residential facility when I read the news online. It overwhelmed and surprised me instantly with relief and celebration. <br />I believe most of us that served in that part of the world came home thinking we did a good thing but somehow we left the job unfinished. Mission creep and diplomacy shaded the original reasons we went into Afghanistan and left most of us looking for the right words to justify why we felt we were doing the right thing to people back home that hadn't put boots on the ground, smelled the surrealness of spice, curry, dust, waste, death, life, foolishness and wisdom on the streets of Kabul, or shared a meal of hummus and mystery meat with Afghan friends while the call to prayer echoed off stucco walls and unfamiliar mountain tops. Then the news that they had taken out Bin Laden. <br />Finally. People in the States wondered why it took so long. Nothing in Afghanistan happens quickly. I remember months of pouring over daily reports hoping to find a clue that we knew where he was or find that he happened to be at the sight of a bombing. The fact is, we never stopped looking. The American public just forgot we were out there. <br />You'd think that would annoy me, but the truth of it is that the fact the American public forgot means we have been successful at our job. We kept it there. It didn't come home to our shores. <br />In WWII everyone was involved in the war because we were under constant threat of being attacked by the enemy on both shores. We scrimped as a nation and rationed food, metal and other resources in support of the war effort. America was at war. <br />Today, American troops are involved in at least two full scale wars and still we cannot say America is at war. The American military is at war, but the American public is only in danger of hurting and helping themselves. We've done our job. Its working. Bin Laden was killed in hiding in a foreign country, not on the streets of our hometown. <br />The "general masses" in America tend to use any excuse to party, riot and/or celebrate: criminal trial decisions, team wins, team losses, Thursdays, etc. Maybe some of the celebration over the death of another human being was out of line. I think, however, if you look closely beyond the mayhem, you will find many of our brothers and sisters in arms that are saying a silent prayer for those friends they lost and breathing a quiet sigh of relief that at least a part of this mission may not have been in vain. Then back to work. Always grateful, never satisfied. On to the next crisis. Sleep well. We got this. <br /><br />Chris W.IslandFeverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14246824221948187817noreply@blogger.com