By Garrett Receveur

It plays out like a scene from a “Modern Warfare” game. Four helicopters, full of U.S. Navy SEALs, land outside a compound, surrounded by high walls topped with barbed wire. One of the helicopters malfunctions, so another helicopter is called in to replace it.

The SEALs, knowing the risk, rush into the home while waiting for the replacement helicopter. Two Arabic guards situated at the compound open fire on the SEALs and are easily taken down. The SEALs storm into the building, searching room to room for their target. They find their man on the second floor and, after he refused to surrender, they shoot him in the left eye, killing him.

Before the man’s fatal shooting, a woman, who was caught in the crossfire, called out his name, the name of America’s most wanted terrorist: Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden was the leader of Al Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. He was the figurehead of the organization and the mastermind behind the attacks, along with fellow member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In fact, it was Mohammed’s torture at Guantanamo Bay which had given the federal government the information needed to plan a successful raid on bin Laden’s compound.

Newspaper printers stopped all across the country, printing new headlines, photos, and stories about this momentous occasion, many headlines proclaiming “We got the bastard!”

Soon after President Barack Obama delivered the news of bin Laden’s death to America, cheers and enthusiastic celebrations broke out across the nation. Thousands of people converged on the White House and Ground Zero, hugging each other amid cries of “U.S.A!” knowing that justice had been done.

As much as I would have liked to, I did not watch Obama’s address to the nation concerning the plot to kill bin Laden. I was asleep at that time.
However, I did happen to be on Facebook. I was checking it before I went to bed and I saw that one of my friends had posted a status saying “Osama bin Laden is dead. Thank God!”

When I first saw this, I didn’t know what to believe. I thought they might be the lyrics to a song by a really obscure band that I had never heard of. Needless to say, I checked all the news sites I could. Sure enough, bin Laden was dead.

If I wasn’t so tired that night, and if I lived in New York or Washington, D.C., I would have jumped out of bed, ran out to hug someone, and shouted patriotic phrases myself. The day after I found out, I was enthusiastic. Former president George W. Bush claimed that justice had been done the moment bin Laden was assassinated. Frankly, I agree with him. Bin Laden was the world’s most wanted terrorist up until his assassination, and for good reason too.

Bin Laden and Al Qaeda were the masterminds behind numerous attacks against America and other nations. Embassies worldwide have been targeted by Al Qaeda for years and Middle East-inhabitants have to struggle with suicide bombers and car bombers daily. Though, to us Americans, all of that pales in comparison to the horrifying events of Sept. 11.

Yet many Americans are hesitant to celebrate bin Laden’s death, saying it’s not right to celebrate the death of a fellow human being no matter how evil he was.

While in most cases, I would agree with this statement. However, in the case of bin Laden, I completely disagree.

Bin Laden and his organization were responsible for the deaths 2,998 people on Sept. 11 alone. I’m sure bin Laden’s followers were celebrating that day with no concern for the thousands of lives that ended so abruptly. I’m sure there were many followers hugging each other in the streets and burning American flags, shouting “Death to America!”

How, then, is it not right for Americans to celebrate the death of one man who caused so much grief and misery during his lifetime?

Besides, Al Qaeda is not yet completely destroyed. All the Navy SEALs did was assassinate the leader, which surely will not be the end of the terrorist organization; they just crippled it for the time being. Al Qaeda itself promised us this much.

We have kicked the proverbial hornet’s nest. A couple hornets came out and stung us, so we went in and squashed the queen. However, soon, whole hordes of hornets will rush out of the nest and sting our bodies until they are completely covered in raised red bumps.

The Al Qaeda threat is not going away anytime in the near future, much to my chagrin. A new figurehead will rise up to fill bin Laden’s spot and gain control over the organization. Perhaps even someone worse than bin Laden. Perhaps the attacks this new leader has planned in order to avenge bin Laden’s death will cost even more American lives than Sept. 11.

Nevertheless, America has fulfilled its promise and that is an occasion to celebrate. What Bush started, Obama finished. Both men, along with the Navy SEALs responsible, deserve credit for the successful assassination of a deadly figurehead for an even deadlier organization.

Nothing will ever be able to bring those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks back from the dead. For most families, the pain of the loss will never leave. While bin Laden’s main goal in the attacks was to destroy the American social structure, he did a lot worse. He tore family after family apart with each plane his terrorists hijacked.

Earlier in the year, I wrote a column that ended with how I’ve always imagined the Sept. 11 attacks. The vision always centers around a little boy whose feet dangle precariously above the floor of the plane. He is clutching the plastic Mickey Mouse ears strapped to his head and is screaming as the plane he is riding collides with the World Trade Center.

I still think about this little boy, but now I imagine something different. I imagine that this boy is still wearing his Mickey Mouse ears, but he is no longer in a plane nor is he screaming in horror. Instead, the boy stands in the middle of a New York street, filled with a multitude of other people waving American flags. Suddenly, a military man, chest adorned with medal after medal, scoops the boy up onto his shoulders and gives him a small flag to wave. The crowd starts chanting “U.S.A!” when, all of a sudden the boy with the Mickey Mouse ears starts singing and the whole crowd eventually joins him, ending in a spine-chilling finale.

“Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave for the land of the free and the home of the brave?”