Hunting Down A Mass Murderer

I remember quite vividly that fateful 9/11 morning ten years ago when the twin towers came down in New York, and along with them, the lives of 3000 innocent Americans, all in one fell swoop. The horror and magnitude of that unthinkable tragedy is seared into our collective memories and etched into our brain cells, never to be forgotten till the day we die. From my living room in San Jose, California, I watched in speechless horror the vilest terrorist act ever perpetrated on American soil. It has been a remarkable decade ever since, book-ended by the tragedy on one end and the killing of the terrorist mastermind at the other! What a manhunt it has been! While the whole world was busy taking in the Royal Wedding in London, President Obama signed the executive order authorizing the raid on Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that brought the Face of Evil to justice, finally!

The historical coincidence of Hitler's and Osama's death being announced to the world, exactly on the same day, May 1, 66 years apart, is quite eerie and bizarre in itself. It was poetic justice that both the mass murderers met an ignominious end, the former having been pushed to take his own life, and the latter having been gunned down by the elite US commando team that stormed his hideaway. The legendary Navy SEAL Team 6 enacted in real life the hunt for a terrorist as if it were a scene from a spy movie, and the surgical precision with which the raid was carried out was a brilliant coup for the Americans, something that will go down as a meticulous, impeccable operation in their intelligence history. It was a moment of relief for all sane-minded individuals who heaved a collective sigh of relief that the world was a better place to live in, now that the greatest terrorist of them all had been killed.

Stories of valor and heroism by men in uniform have always fascinated me since childhood. I remember reading about the counterterrorism raid in Entebbe, Uganda, when Israeli commandos stormed the airport hangar on June 27, 1976, to free their citizens being held as hostages from the hijacking of an Air France Airbus. Idi Amin, who was sheltering the terrorists at the time, had the biggest shock and surprise of his life to learn of the near-perfect rescue operation carried out under his very nose. The Navy SEALs have done better this time, with zero casualties on their side, and just some collateral damage in the form of a helicopter that crash landed and had to be destroyed, all under the nose of the Pakistani military just half a mile away. The daring raid has kept the world agog with wide-eyed wonder and surprise, and the commandos have gained legendary status and will be part of military lore in the days to come!

The hunt for the terrorist mastermind of the century has come to fruition at last, and while it is time to move on, it is equally imperative for the world to keep a vigilant eye that terrorism doesn't rear its ugly head again. The head of Al Qaeda has been cut off, but the body of the snake still writhes, reminding us that we live in a changed world ever since 9/11!