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Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

Mission Accomplished - Osama Bin Laden killed

Posted on Monday, May 02, 2011 at 09:26 AM

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Like most people, on hearing of the death of Osama Bin Laden last night I felt curiously lighter. I wasn't gloating at the news, it was something else - it felt like a spell the city had been laboring under had finally been broken.

Outside my New York window last night I heard fire trucks blaring their horns in celebration. I don't begrudge them their feelings, but I don't know if it's a time to celebrate. I understand the impulse though, God knows I do.

If you were in New York City on 9/11 2001 you'll vividly remember how beautiful the weather was that morning. It was a day of particular splendor, creating an unforgettable disconnect between the smoking rubble and the deep blue sky.

In a daze after the attacks, accompanied by many others, I had walked all the way to the Cloisters in Upper Manhattan by late afternoon. I found I couldn't stay indoors looking at those planes crashing on a loop on the breaking news reports.

So instead I walked and kept walking in search of some place soothing and shaded. They have a flower garden in the Cloisters grounds and soon I was watching bees floating from petal to petal in the late afternoon sunlight. The park benches were shaded by towering trees. We sat there for a long time. The silence was interrupted every few minutes by the roar of low flying military fighter jets and speeding helicopters.

I found I couldn't speak, or rather I didn't want to. Earlier I had lost contact with my partner for five hours as walked home. I embraced him when he reached my door.

In the days that followed Missing Persons posters starting going up all over town. They were decorated with flags, ribbons and little mementos, and they had already begun to look like memorials in fact.

'Have you seen this man? His name is -------. We miss him and we want him back. Please call if you have ANY information about his whereabouts.'

Soon we were hearing of hundreds killed; then thousands. The images of those twin towers falling are one of the most infamous acts of mass murder the world has ever seen.

You don't get over a day like that, you just carry it with you.

Last night, when I heard that the man responsible for that atrocity Osama BinLaden was dead, I remembered two contrasting things simultaneously: the beauty of that day and the horror he unleashed on it.

He was death in life. He was a fanatic and a bully. He was yet another one of histories despots who thought he could reshape the world through mass slaughter. I don't know where such men come from, or why there are so many of them, or why in their tragic madness they imagine they'll succeed where every other tyrant with a grudge has failed. Bin Laden lived by the gun and died by it. How could he have imagined it would end another way?

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seanomelbourne | May 03, 2011, 10:06 PM EDT

2B and his long winded blogs which say nothing, packed full of meaningless invectives.He's a pillar of p--s and wind.

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joanxis | May 03, 2011, 05:55 PM EDT

2B Boo Hoo - sorry you didn't understand my sarcasm. And aren't you the name dropper. Wow, I'm so impressed!

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hancock | May 03, 2011, 01:26 PM EDT

Mac any comment on Gitmo?

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hancock | May 03, 2011, 01:25 PM EDT

He's still an empty suit. there.

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sharoneileen | May 03, 2011, 12:35 PM EDT

I am happy that the world now sees us dancing and parading in the streets. Notice no one is unloading an ouzie machine gun into the sky. Just singing the National Anthem into the night sky. This is how civilized people celebrate. I am sure that there was an order "DEAD". We didn't want him alive, where would he be held, where would he be tried. Send him to Guantanamo. Would the Arab Nations want him back only to release him? No that executive order was that Osama be as dead as those that we lost on Sept. 11 and all those afterward fighting those wars. I for one am glad and sing the praise of my commander and cheif he gave the order and it is done.

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McNamara31 | May 03, 2011, 12:26 PM EDT

Oh hancock not posting your typical "empty suit" comment today? I wonder why?

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hancock | May 03, 2011, 10:00 AM EDT

I guess Gitmo is the right thing after all.

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seagreen | May 03, 2011, 08:50 AM EDT

2B Its time to put on your double knits with the mustard stains, jump into your parlor car with "we support the troops bumper sticker" and head down to the coffee shop and meet the rest of the boys. I'm sure that the conversation will be a unanimous condemnation of the inept, bumbling incompetent in the White House. I'm sure that the credit for the Bin Laden operation will revert back to information and planning that took place during the Bush /Cheney hunting trip.

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seanomelbourne | May 03, 2011, 03:58 AM EDT

Joanxis I would like to offer 2b some tissues but I refuse to communicate with duds Can you please do it for me.

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seagreen | May 03, 2011, 01:52 AM EDT

Skibberrean, Tell us how you really feel...

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joanxis | May 03, 2011, 12:37 AM EDT

Oh, 2B, Boo Hoo. That makes me feel soooo bad.

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pilib04 | May 02, 2011, 09:18 PM EDT

Congratulations to the Navy Seals and their Commander in Chief, President Obama.