He's Dead.

I remember two days after the 9/11 attacks that I was on the phone with a friend of mine and I let a cold anger free about what had been done to our country. I call it a cold anger because I was not ranting or raving or crying or breaking things. I was calm and reserved and deadly serious. I wanted to turn Afghanistan into a sheet of glass. I wanted the mountains leveled and I wanted nuclear fire to fuse the sands and cities and people into a plate of glass that stretched from border to border of the country that had welcomed bin Laden with open arms.

I meant it. I wanted every man, woman, and child and animal and farm and city - destroyed. I wanted them all gone. In ancient times there was something called Pax Romana. You never killed a Roman citizen because it was understood that Rome would send her Legions and annihilate you. I wanted that to happen then.

That feeling finally drifted away. It is not a natural thing to feel when you have been raised in a country that is built on the prospect that all people are created equal and that anyone can find greatness if they work at it hard enough. You find your self defaulting to tolerance.

Our enemies don't. There are still members of terrorist organizations that would love the chance to rain fire down on the United States. There are people out there who want to kill us because we are who we are. We do not believe as they believe. We do not act as they act. And our culture is contagious. They view it as a sickness that erodes the ancient ways.

And our culture can be exactly that. If you are a woman living in a culture where your sexual organs are mutilated or if you are executed because you ALLOW yourself to be raped and you see a country with women like Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton - which side would you pick? If you could be executed for having faith in a different God than the one endorsed by the state and you see American soldiers who are Christians, Jews, and Muslims working together - which side would you pick? So it is easy to fear our culture if you have no tolerance for the thoughts and beliefs of others. We do a bad job most of the time when we try to force our way of life onto folks but then you see that the most successful capitalists out there may turn out to be the Communist Chinese and you get the idea of how pervasive our culture can be.

And now we have shown that we have resolve. We said we would do something and we did it. And I had a momentary cold anger response again - I am not a good person yet, but Christ is working on me.

I laughed when I first heard that bin Laden was dead. I cursed him to hell - and I still think he is roasting there this morning. I toasted his demise. I told my wife that I hope they soaked his body in pork fat and staked it out in the desert with a camera on it broadcasting it to Al Jazeera for the whole world to see. I wanted the 9/11 family members to have a chance to walk by and spit on the corpse.

But then I heard how the plan to take him was executed. A special team who had trained for weeks went in to kill him specifically. A concerted effort was made to avoid killing children or women. One woman was killed but she was apparently being used as a human shield. In total, the woman, two couriers, bin Laden's oldest son, and bin Laden were the only ones killed.

The team then secured his body. They took what was needed to have DNA confirmation that they had the right person. The United States also made clear that the body would be handled in adherence to Islamic law. The body was offered to Saudi Arabia who reportedly did not want it on their soil. One of the strongest traditions is for the body to be laid to rest within 24 hours of death and as a result, Navy personnel buried him at sea this morning.

I have already seen one idiot on social media citing the burial at sea as "proof" that we have not killed the man and that this is a political stunt. One of the drawbacks of living in a democracy is that we tolerate so much idiocy. How can claiming to kill a person who is still alive be a smart political move? All that person has to do is show up in front of a camera with today's paper and we all look like idiots, Grow up crazy people.

Back to bin Laden. He came from a wealthy family. He was apparently very intelligent and charismatic. He gave orders that resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. He intentionally targeted children and women as well as soldiers. Soldiers killed by his followers would have their bodies desecrated and dragged through the streets. He actually gave an order that all Americans should be killed whenever and wherever they are found.

We spent almost 10 years tracking him down and when we did, we targeted him specifically. We tried our best to kill only him and acknowledged that a woman was killed inadvertently. We secured his body and made sure to follow the precepts of his faith to treat that body with respect and dignity that he in no way ever deserved. We made clear that we have no fight with any culture or religion - only those who would kill Americans and our friends and allies. And we made clear that we would pursue anyone who harmed us or our allies for as far as they can ever run and for as long as it will ever take. Which side would you pick?