What comes next?

Today, the American people are celebrating the demise of the largest symbol of terrorism of my generation.  It was one of those moments I think I'll remember forever.  It joins the list of events seared into my mind forever; first hearing about 9/11 as my mother talked with my fourth grade teacher after making an uncharacteristic decision to pick my brother and I up from school that day being the first on that list.  Osama bin Laden has been my generations symbol of evil, and I hope he remains the only one we will have the misfortune of dealing with in our life time.

His death gives a sense of closure to a nation still mourning the loss of thousands of people on that infamous September day.  All over Facebook, people were sounding off the majority expressing relief and happiness that bin Laden had been stopped from causing anymore pain and death to the world.  There were those that expressed disappointment and disgust at the "celebration of death" as some put it.  To them, I have this to say:  The pain, both physical and emotional, caused by bin Laden will never be healed.  Give us a sentence or two on Facebook to declare our relief in the power to finally turn a dark, bloody page in our nation's history.  That being said, his death does not  end the war on terror.  Al Qaeda now has a martyr for their cause, and, if we are to believe the pundits on cable news, attacks will most likely increase as radical Islamists release their fury at losing their symbolic leader.

Questions remain about bin Laden's involvement in the day-to-day operations of the organization.  It seems he had become less integral to the structure and more of a figurehead.  The biggest questions, in my opinion, go past bin Laden and are directed towards the country he was killed in, Pakistan.

Pakistan and the U.S. have had a tenuous relationship, sure to grow as more information comes to light as to just how long bin Laden had been hiding in his compound in the city of Abbottabad, a city that had a large military population.  Needless to say, lots of suspicion is directed towards the Pakistani government as to how much information they had on bin Laden and whether they were reluctant in providing it to the U.S. government.

This is a momentous success for the United States and the world.  This unifying event will lift our nation's spirits for sometime.  But, it must be remembered that there are still those out there that seek to do us harm and we must remain vigilante to their threat.