We're tearing us apart.

We should have been together.  On the night Bin Laden was killed, we should have been together.

When I heard the news I spent a little time online but then I deliberately logged off.   Even Facebook quickly became political.  In that moment I just wanted to savor the news.  I didn't want to see punditry from left or right.  I didn't want the political spin...I just wanted to watch the news.  I was in spirit with those in front of the White House.  I felt a part of the crowd in Times Square.  I was glad he was dead.  

But that's me and, apparently, this is all about "us and them."

Left-wing and right-wing sites went to partisanship in the blink of an eye.   Quicker than you could politicize the Giffords shooting, the sentiments shifted from justice for the victims of terrorist attacks to who would score partisan points with what.  

"They'll never give Obama credit for this."

"They will never give Bush any credit for this."

"They might as well cancel the election."

"They are going to say this is the end of the war on terror."

"They won't celebrate because it looks good for Obama."

"They are going to milk this for political points."

"They couldn't do it, but we did!"

"They are going to have to stop hating on the military now."

Some of the usual suspects raced for their blogs.   They wanted to say things about "the right" and "the left" before anyone on "the right" or "the left" had even spoken.  Look, if you did not take some time to breathe deeply, absorb the news and maybe wait for more information before you wrote some hate screed indicting the political party you don't belong to ... you have issues.

Obama handled this masterfully.  I give credit to Obama.  The Seal team was the right way to handle it.  Can you imagine if we'd dropped a bomb?  

No DNA.

Pakistan saying it was an attack.  

The possibility of seeing photos of "alleged" bodies of children and claims that we hit a day care center that just happened to be surrounded by walls and barbed wire?  

The intelligence forces that gathered the intel deserve credit, too.  The methods for gathering this intel appear to be in question, now, but some folks worked very, very hard to make sure this tricky mission went down ... well not without a hitch, but successfully.

And Seal team...I want to buy you all a pizza.  I know I'll never be able to because you will remain hidden heroes.

Yeah, I read that MLK (misquote).  Certainly some of our happiness is tempered by the idea that "they" may retaliate.  Some of them were protesting while we were celebrating.  We are told that "they" aren't really like that, while we are also told that we'd better simmer down or we'll upset "them."  The larger Muslim world should really try to understand why we took to the streets.  This was about 9/11.  We were not burning anyone's flag, we were displaying our own.  We would have welcomed them joining us.  Some Muslims in the USA DID join other Americans in the streets.  But in some other countries ... including the UK ... it's disturbing to see so many of them upset that the witch is dead.   Some in other countries are claiming this was a "murder".

There's been a little too much, "we're no better than them" for my liking.  We weren't overjoyed about the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians...we were happy that the perpetrator had been brought to justice.   We didn't fly a plane into him or behead him on Youtube or wrap him in bacon and throw him into the Bay of Pigs, we shot him in the head.  Ultimately, we buried him at sea according to his religious tradition.

I don't need to see a picture of him.  I think the military would not have been complicit in a hoax.  Also, I'm not a "deather".  When did we become such a nation of conspiracy theorists?  

We should have been together.  Instead of days of increasing partisanship, conspiracy theories, indictment of politicians, pointing fingers at "the other side" ... we really should have been together.

People of all stripes should be allowed to be grateful, without being told, "You're not an Obama - supporter, so you can't be happy about this."  "You were upset about enhanced interrogation techniques ... and that's what led to this!"  Everyone should just chill out.

We're tearing us apart.  If we keep ripping on US, he wins.