FINDING BIN LADEN---LOSING PART OF OURSELVES?

And so,predictably, the national conversation was filled with conflicting opinions on the capture and death of Osama bin Laden. One of the main talking points seems to be whether interrogation methods were key in finally putting enough pieces together to locate the hiding place---and whether we, as a country, should condone this method of interrogation---otherwise known as torture. Waterboarding is supposedly the technique used to induce information which finally led to the capture of Osama bin Laden. Though unpleasant and quite awful, it seems the mildest among an array of torture methods. We abhor the thought of torture, even in a war situation---but this wasn't and isn't your grandparents war---this enemy is different and everything about them and their war strategies were completely foreign to us. We were not sure where they were, who they were, or when they might strike next. And the worst, perhaps most unsettling and bewildering of all --- they played by different rules, even willing to blow themselves up for their cause. Beheading, torturing, and killing innocent people were totally within their game plan. This was and is a different war,and unless we found a way to retaliate, we were sitting ducks for more attacks. Our very survival as a country was at stake-- we had to learn fast. We had been reluctant to recognize the danger signals that had been flashing for years with the previous bombing of the World Trade Center, and other attacks around the world of our U.S. embassies and the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. Awakened literally overnight on the morning of 9/11---we finally realized we could no longer passively resist or labor under the illusion that this strange enemy could never over power us. Who could have even imagined the commandeering of our own air planes being flown into our magnificent buildings? It was unthinkable, but it was done---and it could well happen again. Game on--but how? Where was the enemy,and who was their leader? His name was Osama bin Laden, and he took full credit for 9/11. He had no actual army, just "cells" of people all over the world. It was only a matter of time before they would strike again.

Already fighting a group known as the Taliban in Afghanistan who supported terrorists and oppressed their own people, our President Bush and our military now turned their sights on Iraq, who was also suspected of being a terrorist-sympathetic country---and one which by all accounts were hiding weapons of mass destruction. "Either you are with us", Bush threatened, "or you are against us". He meant it, and we went to war against Iraq. We won, and today Iraq is on its way to becoming a democracy of sorts. George Bush lost his credibility, his popularity, and the respect of many when weapons of mass destruction were never found---but in return, his greatest achievement and gift to us was protecting us from further attacks during his presidency.

The search for Osama bin Laden, however went frustatingly on and on, and the terror continued unabated, as his videos and speeches continued to taunt and threaten us with more attacks to come. We had to find this man---our enemy number one. He seemed invincible and invisible. But if we couldn't find him---- we did find and detain many of his followers and leaders. One of them, a Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,supposedly talked via methods of interrogation,which some call unacceptable torture. His information undoubtedly led to the eventual capture of Osama bin Laden. The military and the politicians claim it was a "mosaic" of information which when put all together pin pointed the unlikely hiding place of this most wanted of men---but it is widely accepted that the key piece of information came from this captive and his distaste for waterboarding. There seemed to be no other way to locate bin Laden---he was rich enough to buy his invisibility and clever enough to escape a whole world of hunters.

Hiding in plain site, it seemed, in the middle of a Pakistan city, questionably near a military base, Osama bin Laden finally met his inevitable fate. It had taken nearly 10 years since he brought his war to us and killed 3000 innocent people on a sunny day in New York. He ran, but he couldn't hide forever---or could he have--- without the very serious use of the interrogation technique called "torture"? We will never know. President Obama has outlawed any further use of torture, saying "that's not who we are". But nor are we who we were. The events of 9/11 changed us in many ways, and perhaps one of them is that we could no longer afford our usual rules of engagement or our same views of morality. Rule number one had become---something called survival. We survived and outlived bin Laden---but there are others like him out there, still plotting our destruction. Will we manage to survive them and/or ourselves in our struggle to remain moral, fair, and above the disturbing, but often effective means of obtaining information that could save our lives? Time and history will tell---