OK ... next? (No, seriously ... now what?)

"The Mills of God grind slowly ... but they grind exceedingly small" Rudyard Kipling

OK ... time to take a deep, collective breath and consider what has been accomplished here.

Most pundits are in agreement that this is certainly NOT an end to terrorism worldwide. (Hell, there is enough state-sponsored terrorism to more than fill any putative gap left by the mass murderer Osama bin Laden.)

Interviews with families who lost loved ones in the attacks on 9/11 show that this certainly won't bring back lost loves, nor even provide all that much closure.

Initial polling shows that, with the economy still in the tank and gas prices well over $4 per gallon, Pres. Obama's popularity may temporarily soar ... but it's gonna' be a long haul for him until the elections of November, 2012. (Nothing is shorter than the collective memory of the American electorate, it seems.)

OK ... so what, then? What's been achieved?

Balance...sort of. (A little, at least)

Given the sheer size of the damage done to us on our own soil on 9/11, we had to do this. We simply had to hunt him down and kill him to bring the scales of the universe back into balance. To simply shrug it off and go on about our lives would have called into question our basic values and outlook on the worth of an American citizen's life. We simply couldn't let this man remain alive with impugnity.

We followed established precedent. Remember Timothy McVeigh? The Oklahoma City bomber? Executing him in federal prison certainly didn't ease the loss of loved ones there ... but the US Government showed the world that if you declare open war on the US or its citizens, you will be hunted and hounded to (literally in bin Laden's case) the ends of the Earth.

The only thing you get by killing Americans is dead.

For his pains, the only thing Osama bin Laden got was being cut off, surrounded, and -- in the end -- very messily dead and dumped in an unmarked grave in the lonely ocean.

Terrorism will go on. Killings will go on. But the point is made.

You want to see Allah? Go out of your way to fuck with us and we'll facilitate the meeting ... no matter how long it takes.