The Many Who Stopped The One

The wicked criminal is dead at last, and the world is celebrating the cloak-and-dagger planning behind the blazing attack on his compound in Pakistan.  The news broke yesterday and has not ceased.  It's a fascinating and dazzling event, the tip of a data-gathering iceberg.  Compared to the Bourne series, James Bond and other suave Hollywood super-spy heroics, this story is all about a long persistent slog, a tedious and frustrating hunt for a rich and ingenious sociopath.  

All the people who have cynically said the President is not doing enough, is too soft, too indecisive, too uncertain, unclear, unwhatever, really have had no idea how much has been done behind the scenes all along.  Let's celebrate perseverance and professionalism.  We need to feel some relief after having been cynical about our nation and its intentions in the world.  What I think we will learn from this in the long run is that the world is incredibly complicated and that we do depend on smart people in every country in the world to help maintain peace.

The same agencies being lauded now have been toiling to gather information about bin Laden's whereabouts since before he bombed the twin towers and brought ruin to us.  He was responsible for heinous things prior to that and was as elusive before that, if not as notorious to the entire world.

The invisible work of intelligence gathering and data comparison was the long grind, the frustration, the peering into opacity that had to go on and on for years until a picture could be completed. Like an archeologist who finds one tooth and part of a femur and reconstructs an entire hominid from it, genius and imagination had to fill in the gaps.  Bits and pieces of odd facts and translations of intercepted  bits of conversations were made to make sense, but it took years, and it will be ongoing for years to come.  

People all over the country are eating their words of criticism and impatience.  Perhaps they will simmer down a bit about other problems that appear to be going on and on without any change. If this event is any indication, it tells us that lots of other smart people are working on intractable problems in other facets of government and need our patience and interest in their success.

There will always be evil and stupidity in the world.  There always has been.  But, there has always been genius, courage and perseverance related to goodness and idealism.  For a little while, the shadow people who work under cover can take a bow on the world stage.  They have earned every bit of our appreciation and applause.