Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo

This code word, transmitted from a walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan to the situation room at The White House, signalled the successful end of a 9 1/2 year quest to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice. A relative handful of U.S. Navy seals had, as a result of painstaking intelligence work by others, found and , in a early morning firefight, killed him. We have finally achieved one of our goals in the "war on terror."

Or have we? What will be the consequences of our action? Have we removed the head of the snake that is Al Queda or have we given others a reason to hate, and possibly attack, the U.S? Will the disaffected of the world rejoice at the death of a person under whose direction many Muslims died as well? Only time will tell.

We have extracted a small measure of justice for the 9/11 attacks, as well as the embassy bombings and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole. We have shown those persons intent on terrorist acts that if they attack us, they will be brought to justice. We have also exposed the Pakistani government and military as, at best, disingenuous if not duplicitous in their professions of aid in the hunt for Bin Laden and in the fight against worldwide terrorism. The blood of many of those killed after 9/11 is on their hands.

Whatever the outcome, we, as a country, seem to feel better now that he is dead. Spontaneous celebrations erupted from coast to coast as word spread of his demise. Personally I feel both elated and apprehensive. My only wish is instead of the burial at sea that he received, that his head had been placed on a pike at Ground Zero, and below it a sign,"Sic Semper Sicariis" (Thus Always Unto Terrorists).