Thoughts, part two

I am not much of a TV watcher, a bit in the evenings but almost never during the day.  My family all knows this so each time there is a news event they let me know-The Murrow building bombing in Oklahoma City, I get a phone call "Turn on the TV,"  The Challenger explodes, I get a phone call "Turn on the TV."  On September 11, 2001 I was madly cleaning house before I left for my history grad classes and I got THREE phone calls "Turn on the TV, you need to see this."  So last night, after I'd gone to bed it shouldn't come as a surprise that there was tapping on my door.  "Mom, did you know bin Laden has been killed?"  I got out of bed.  Caught the last of President Obama's speech, then couldn't go to sleep.  Unlike many of my countrymen I was not elated.  Instead, I wondered.  What will happen now?  Will he become a martyr, used to forward terror on a global basis?  Will their funding dry up?  Is this good or bad?  He was a religious fanatic, who hated the US and possibly the entire western world.  I don't understand why, although I'm sure one of my children will enlighten me.  Just because of the accident of birth, he hated me.  (Personally, I've always considered that accident of birth to be a great thing even if I don't always agree with those who run this country.) I am glad that those who lost loved ones on 9/11 have some closure (even though it will not heal their pain).  I am glad that one less religious fanatic lives to torment the rest of us.   The war is not over.  I do not like having our men and women in harms way, I want them home, I want the world to live in peace.  That being said, I remember Vietnam and the devastation that not completing the task set for the military created in our servicemen.  I do not want our soldiers to feel that grief, and I do not want the people of Afghanistan to be returned to life under the Taliban.  So, I will not join those who want them all home yesterday.  Progress towards peace is being made.  If nothing else, this war should teach us that religious fanaticism in ALL forms, ALL religions is a very dangerous thing, a very dangerous thing.  For ALL of us.