The killing of Bin Laden after ten years of bloody bungling made me think of a conversation I had with a housemate of mine right after 9/11 — it may have been the night of the attacks. We were talking about what the U.S. should do. I said it would be cool of us to not respond dramatically; that instead, we should send in special teams to take down the perpetrators one by one. There would be no televised bombings to invite cycles of retribution — just quiet ninja-like justice. My housemate, a right-leaning Navy vet, favored more of a “wipe-Afghanistan-off-the-map” approach. Well, we know how that went.
I find myself giving my cartoons Onion-esque titles lately. Not that they have a monopoly on fake newspaper headlines, but I don’t want to overdo it. With this one, it felt necessary.