Osama bin Laden

With the news of Osama bin Laden's death today, I wanted to say a couple of things.

First of all, I want to give my respect to the man.  I know many will not understand this, but I have to believe that this man honestly followed what he believed to be the Truth.  It may not align with our beliefs, but he did PASSIONATELY follow what he believed.  Do we follow our beliefs with the same passion?

From all of the evidence that I have seen, I must conclude that Osama bin Laden was not a hypocrite who preached one set of rules, but lived by another.  You may choose to hate him because you label his actions as evil, but you have to respect him for his giving of his everything for his beliefs.  The man fought for the religion that he was raised in and taught to believe as the one and only real Truth by his parents.

On another note, as we gripe about how many bad decisions are made by our government officials, I must give them a thumbs up on the burial at sea.  I understand that no country was prepared to take him for burial in such a short notice, but I see another reason that burial at sea is actually preferred, in my opinion.  One news article stated "Another concern expressed by U.S. officials was that bin Laden's grave site would become a shrine -- a practice Campo said bin Laden detested but nevertheless likely would have occurred."  This article actually used the word "prudent" to describe the decision and I would agree.  He was our #1 enemy, but we still did our best to respect his wishes around the proper burial rites of his religion and specific personal wishes of his grave site not becoming a shrine.  I applaud or military service men and women for maintaining the honor of a true warrior.

This is a major event that will be added to our collective history books today.  We will all remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news.  Many are celebrating this day.  Some must be mourning this day.  Many feel closure, but how may think things have only just now begun?  The obvious question is "What now?"  What Now? Lemme tell you what now...

What do you think?  What now?  Where do we go from here?  Is al Qaeda any lesser of a threat now that bin Laden is dead?  Are they more of a threat?