Veterans Offer Thoughts on Death of bin Laden

Bob Bohr starts work very early at 4 a.m. So, when word came Sunday night that Osama bin Laden was dead, Bohr was sound asleep.

Commander of the American Legion’s DuPage County Executive Committee, Bohr heard the news before he left for work.

“Like everybody else, I always hoped this day would come,” Bohr said. “But, in my opinion, I don’t think terrorism started with Osama bin Laden and it is not going to end with him.”

Knowing that the military has been working on this for years, Bohr said it must have been pretty cool to be a member of the team that conducted the raid on bin Laden.

“It’s a great day for our military and kind of makes their job a little easier now, but I’m still under the belief that terrorism will not stop,” he said, adding he is sure that bin Laden had a game plan in place in case something happened to him.

Unlike Bohr who slept through President Obama's address, Ken Garhan sat, waited and watched as it was announced Sunday night that bin Laden had been killed in military action in Pakistan.

Garhan, a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Judd Kendall Post #3873, said he was waiting to hear President Obama’s message to the country. When the president finally spoke to the nation, what he had to say turned out to be very interesting.

“It’s like winning a battle, but we haven’t won the war,” Garhan said. “But, it is worth celebrating.”

After all the lives lost and taken as a result of bin Laden’s actions, it was a moment worth celebrating, he said.

Bin Laden was the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. He was also the leader of al-Qaida, a terrorist organization responsible for thousands of deaths.

A small team of special forces carried out the operation and after a firefight, they killed bin Laden and took custody of his body, according to President Obama.

Mayor George Pradel, who has served in the Marines, said he was watching the news on TV when the announcement was made.

“I thought, 'wow, their mission was accomplished,'” Pradel said Monday afternoon. “I thought first of all about our military man here, Dan Shanower, who was a military man in the Navy. He lost his life at the Pentagon. I thought about his mom and dad and I was hoping that what they were saying [on the news] brought some relief to them.”

Even though bin Laden is dead, Pradel said it is important as a nation not to let our guard down.

“We have to be very cautious that someone who studied under bin Laden won’t try something,” he said.

The death of bin Laden is valid proof that it is impossible to hide, said Mike Jaensch, the president of the Board of Education and a retired member of the U.S. Air Force.

“Obviously it is good news anytime you take out basically a murderer like that who controls a vast group of terrorists. ... It is good news for us,” Jaensch said. “It is a very broad and vast system of terrorists we are fighting. I wouldn’t say that the war is won.”

Jaensch said it is important to set emotions aside and look at the event objectively.

“At some point, the trade-off becomes questionable,” he said. “We can do anything we want but at what price; price in lives, price in money.”

Trillions of dollars have been spent to this point, he said.

“There’s no denying it is a very emotional event, a very positive emotional event,” Jaensch said. "However at some point, you have to take emotion out of it and look at our objective and the cost of obtaining that objective.”