Back to the one image, no doubt strategically released, of the players in the situation room—- here is what I thought when I saw it. Every single person looks dead serious. Their faces fit the scene. I took solace in this and here is why— because if it were the previous administration, I think there would have been smiles and glee. And it would have disgusted me.

Speaking of the previous administration and Jeff’s notion that the war on terror can now end—- it does not have to be endless if we killed its’ captain— the elimination of OBL by Obama in 18 months really makes me sad in a way– said is not the right word, but I have not found the word yet that really gets it—- here is what I feel/think: this could have been done within 18 months of September 11 if Bush/Cheney/Rummy/Rice/Bremmer wanted it to happen. And then we would have had no justification for the invasion of Iraq or Afghanistan and we would have been spared 8 years of the tyranny of fear and all that that fear and the playing on it allowed the previous administration to do. The killing of Osama Bin Laden reinforces my most cynical convictions that Bush and Cheney wanted him alive so they could scare their population into doing whatever they wanted to do under the guise of a war on terror. And what they did with that fear is plunge Iraq further into the abyss, lose many lives in Afghanistan (not just American) and pretty much bankrupt the country by backing the financial industries playing with people’s lives with the trading of such obtuse financial instruments that many with an MBA cannot quite make sense of the endless deferred payments. I guess there is sadness and political rage and the overwhelming sense of the futility of the lives and wealth lost in only 8 short years.