Keep going until the king is taken.

I only happened upon the news.  A friend posted something on Facebook about a presidential address at 10:30 on a Sunday night, and how this could not be good.  I don’t have cable, so I started searching the web for a site that might carry the footage live.  It was frustrating because the statement didn’t start until nearly midnight and none of the sites were carrying any streaming feeds.  The feeds would start when the president made the address but not beforehand.

I watched the Facebook news feeds start to explode as the news began to leak.  Could bin Laden really be dead?  Did the US truly have his body?  Was the bogeyman than haunted all our children’s dreams finally be a distant memory?  I surfed through various news sites trying to get a firm grasp of what might be happening.  But the White House Press Office had done a good job of leaking the story.  There were no names, no confirmation of the news.  Only credits of "someone who would know" and "persons unidentified."  I hate rumors, especially in the news.  So I refused to accept the spreading story until someone would take credit.  The president finally did, and the internet seemed to explode with "Obama got Osama" and chanting and celebration.

But I couldn’t help feeling… worried.  Almost more scared than I was the day before.  What would happen next?  Does this mean the jihad is over?  Does this mean our troops will come home?  Does this mean the wars in the Middle East will end?

Or does this mean there will be a power vacuum, an internal struggle in al-Qaeda to replace their leader?  Does this mean they will only strive harder to reach the goals set out by bin Laden?  Does this mean we’ve only created a martyr who’s image will continue to lead al-Qaeda and haunt us?  Does this mean retaliation?

A friend posted a comment on Facebook about how he wished the US had tried harder to kill the man’s idea’s and not just the man.  I can understand his point, that without followers bin Laden was merely a crazy man in a cave.  But if you have a serpent poisoning a lake, spending all your resources on cleaning the lake, but not killing the serpent will not solve the problem.  The serpent will continue to poison the lake and you will never be rid of the poison.

Below is an excerpt from the diary entry I wrote this past September.  You can read the entire entry if you’d like.  I would fight you for me.

War is never pretty, but the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 seems to be the image we hold to when we think of battles.  The French and English meet on open ground and camp for the night.  In the morning, they will charge against each other and fight until one side is totally killed or captured.  There is calvary and archers and footmen and knights.  Its like a live bloody chess game.  Keep going until the king is taken.

Keep going until the king is taken.

Suspend reality for just a moment.  What do you think would happen if Knight Osama bin Laden’s men captured Knight Barack Obama and held him for ransom in his desert castle, like Princess Maud did with her brother Steven the Usurper?  And Knight Osama was captured by Knight Obama’s men, held in the white castle?  Would either side bargain for the release of their leader?  What might they ask?  What do you think would happen if both sides refused to release their prisoner and instead killed him?  Would Al-Qaeda give up on its jihad?  Would they roll over and come out with their hands up?  I really don’t think so.  On the other side, would the USA back down and give up?  Would it pull every American out of foreign lands and give back every captured terrorist from our jails?  I really don’t think so.  This would not end the war as it might in the past.

We no longer have the suspend reality.  Knight Obama has killed Knight bin Laden.  So what happens next?  Where is our V-Day?  When will our country no longer be at war?