Jeff's Commentary - 5/5 - Sean's Story of 9/11

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result only to have the same outcome each time.

The Obama Administration was in such a great position with the death of Osama bin Laden on Sunday. Almost everybody in the U.S. was ecstatic.

All they had to do was come out and state, “We got the sucker.” No more was needed. But they fabricated what really happened. “Big firefight. Osama used his wife as a shield. Osama was going for a weapon.”

That’s not what happened. The Seals went in and shot the men and left most the woman and children alone. They plugged Osama. He was killed hiding in a third floor bedroom. He was unarmed.

I for one, am good with that if it went down that way. Osama was a mass killer and has been hunted for over 10 years. Taking him alive would only keep the mission of our enemies focused on his living legacy in Gitmo. This ended the story for the world’s most hunted man.

We haven’t learned from the Pat Tillman episode. This time instead of the military making it up, it was the administration. Insanity again. I think of the liar in the old Saturday Night Live Skits. I picture Obama and his advisors around the conference table Sunday. And I see them all agreeing to how to frame the killing. And I just think of the skit with the Liar...“yeah..yeah..that’s the ticket...that’s how it happened...that’s the story.” Only it didn’t happen that way. Why the lies? Why the story?

It takes away from the valiant effort of the Seals that simply went in and did their job. Against great danger, they succeeded with their mission. And the information they were able to secure may stop future attacks from happening and help get many more of these killers before they attack again.

I listened to a woman on NPR this morning talking about her 50 year old husband Sean. Sean was on the 104th Floor of the Trade Center on 9/11. There was too much smoke in the stairwell to get down. Sean called his wife who had been with him since they were 16. He told her how much he loved her, that he was going to die and for her to be strong and to live life each and every day forward. Not to be afraid. They talked on Sean’s cell phone until the building collapsed and the quiet took over. Sean never knew who or why he was dying over. But the rest of us do. We’ve lived it for 10 years.

I had to take a moment as I parked my car listening to his wife tell the story. A tear went down my cheek. And I thought of Sunday night.

For all the Sean’s and families of those that died on 9/11, we did what we said we would do back in 2001. We hunted down the person responsible for that day and we “made it right.”

We shouldn’t have to make up a story about how we did it. We went in, and “got the sucker.” That should have been enough. For Sean and his wife, that’s all they wanted.

Jeff