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Spartan Daily
Friday, May 6, 2011
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No, the war is not over now that Osama bin Laden is dead
By Melissa Sabile
The Real Deal
Published: Thursday, May 5, 2011
Melissa Sabile
I can still remember everything about that day. It was my mom's birthday, though she had already been at work at the coffee shop for three hours.
I was getting ready for school and still had no idea what was happening on the other side of the country, and all I could think about was how I hadn't gotten my mom a birthday present yet.
My dad called, like he did every morning, to tell me that he was on his way and I needed to be waiting outside for him to pick me up.
As I climbed into his car a few minutes later, I can remember him asking me what I wanted for my birthday, because in about three more weeks, I would be 15 years old. His radio was off, like every morning on the way to school, and still I had no clue what was going on in New York..............
When I heard the next day on the radio that people were celebrating bin Laden's death by running in the streets, screaming obscene things and wrapping the American flag around themselves like a blanket, I was upset.
Is the world a better place because his is dead? Yes, of course. Is it going to change the fact that thousands of people died because of his reign of terror? No. Is it going to bring the U.S. troops back? Absolutely not.
The war is not over, why are we running amok in the streets?
It's a debate that I've been following on my morning talk show and it's something I don't understand. One side of the debate is that people are celebrating bin Laden's death because it is an American victory. The other side of the debate is that people shouldn't be celebrating his death because it does nothing to improve their lives — celebration is pointless.
Don't get me wrong, I'm proud that our American soldiers have given him the justice he deserved.
I'm in no way relieved or believe that the world is at peace now that he's gone.
The fact of the matter is terrorism will still exist, regardless of whether bin Laden is dead or alive. No amount of U.S. troops deployed in any part of the world will change that.
Oprah had Tweeted shortly after the president's speech on Sunday, "Does this mean the war is over?" The answer is no. Many people, like Oprah, believe that we are safe now that bin Laden is dead.
Someone new will rise up and violent acts will still take place — perhaps there will even be more attacks as people in enemy countries, no doubt, will see bin Laden as a martyr.
I hope and pray that there will not be any more attacks on our nation and that our troops will soon return safely. In 10 years I probably won't remember so vividly what happened on May 1, 2011, but I will never, ever forget what happened on Sept. 11.

"The Real Deal" is a weekly column appearing on Thursdays. Melissa Sabile is a Spartan Daily Sports Editor.
1 comments
Fri May 6 2011 Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in a stunning decision that honored the first-year U.S. president more for promise than achievement and drew both praise and skepticism around the world. But critics called the Nobel committee's decision premature, given that Obama has achieved few tangible gains as he still grapples with challenges ranging from the war in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea and now the war on Libya.The raid has further strained ties between the U.S. and Pakistan. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers are calling for a review of billions in aid to Pakistan in light of the revelation that bin Laden was living inside a heavily fortified compound in a wealthy Pakistani suburb. Former Pakistani president Pervez... Musharraf criticized the U.S. for attacking the compound without Pakistan's knowledge, calling it a violation of Pakistani sovereignty."It's very important to use this defining moment, I think, to rally the American people and to remind the American people that we are spending trillions of dollars, billions every week, on this open-ended longest war in American history and that we have economic priorities, economic recovery, job creation priorities here in our own country that this money can be used for," U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee said.We've got to remove our young men and women from harm's way, and we've got to really make sure that our presence in countries throughout the world do not create more danger and more anger toward the United States, which, you know, diminishes our national security.
Ted Rudow III, MA.
Class of 1996