On September 11th 2001, the United States faced its largest and most devastating tragedy since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. An act of terrorism, formulated by Al Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden, in which nearly 3,000 American citizens were killed unjustly and soon became known as the largest terrorism assault ever experienced on American soil. On May 1st 2011, the United States of America reestablished their pride and reclaimed the title as the world’s most powerful nation. Osama bin Laden was found, and killed, by American military personnel after ten years of searching relentlessly.
"Justice has been done," said President Barak Obama during a late night video announcement to the nation.
The mission that was sought to capture and assassinate bin Laden took merely minutes to carry out and fortunately involved no American casualties. Although there was Pakistani involvement in the search for bin Laden, President Obama made it very clear on multiple occasions that the death of bin Laden was caused by American hands and efforts. Obama did make a point however to contact the president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, and tell him that it was "important to note that [the United States’] counter-terrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding."
As the news of bin Laden’s death spread throughout the nation, there were few silent and unhappy voices to be heard. College campuses around the nation, including Michigan State University, were loudly chanting "USA! USA! USA!" in proud voices as more and more people filed into the streets to celebrate this momentous occasion. The White House also experienced its wave of chanters at close to midnight, and people were seen waving American flags and showing their appreciation to the nation’s president. However, the largest crowd of people could be found in New York City as people cried with joy and relief with the fact that the man who destroyed their city and families was no longer alive.
Even though there was much joy revolving around his death, many are concerned as to what may happen as far as retaliation by those who were in cahoots with bin Laden. Though many believe that the death of bin Laden will lead to an alleviation of troops overseas, Obama claims that American forces will still remain in Afghanistan, and various Middle Eastern countries, until the job that was started has come to a complete end. As CIA director Leon Panetta says, "bin Laden is dead, [but] Al Qaeda is not." Panetta was the head of the mission, which began on Friday, that finally put an end to Osama’s life and when word came back to headquarters that his team had succeeded, cheers broke out around the conference room.
Whatever the global consequences may be, the death of Osama bin Laden marks the end of a decade of the search for American justice and the beginning of the upward climb toward regaining strength as a nation.
