Now, perhaps, it's time to declare 'Mission Accomplished' for real

I had mixed emotions on hearing of the death of Osama bin Laden. I felt a sigh of psychological relief, if not exactly comfort, mixed with fear that his supporters may be vowing revenge.

Instantly I thought of Sept. 11, 2011. My two younger brothers had one-way plane tickets from Boston's Logan Airport, just like the attackers. My brothers, in their early 20s, were flying to Minneapolis. Unlike the terrorists, they did not pay cash for their plane tickets; they used my credit card.

On Sept. 14, my wife and I drove straight to Greenfield, Mass., an hour outside Boston. We brought my brothers home. Later, the FBI visited my home for an "informational interview."

The agents asked me where bin Laden might be. I scratched a map of Pakistan and Afghanistan and said, "If I were bin Laden, I would never leave this area," and I circled the border area between the two countries. Why there? Because of the treacherous terrain.

Within days, I suspected that my home phone was being tapped. Later, I learned from friends that I wasn't alone in that suspicion.

Next were airport screenings and endless questionings, along with detailed baggage searches. But we all accepted it as a new reality, a price we had to pay to enjoy a good life. Soon I became a vocal supporter of these restrictions and safety measures. Why? Because of the danger of suicide bombers. The U.S. military is powerful, but people are still "soft targets," and when a bomb explodes it does not discriminate.

And I felt a sense of responsibility, a duty to stand up against those who had adulterated and tainted the faith of my fathers and presented Islam as an enemy rather a symbol of peace and conciliation.

I remained a supporter of the Republican Party until the Iraq war, which I firmly believed fit the label its critics gave it as "a war of choice." Later that view was vindicated by the absence of weapons of mass destruction. It damaged U.S. credibility for years, and all could have easily been avoided.

Remember the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the Lincoln, while Osama was still at large? The Abu Ghraib abuse and torture, supposedly by a few "bad apples"? The roadside IED attacks on young American soldiers? The suffering of thousands of innocent Iraqi people, who had no say when Saddam Hussein was in power or when U.S. forces were in control?

We never learn from history.

Those who thought we should wait for solid intelligence to direct our military action were ridiculed and discarded, their loyalty questioned and suspected. But in the end, it was intelligence that delivered. This was after we'd spent thousands of lives, billions of dollars, incurred economic recession and increased anger in the Muslim world against U.S. policy - all to get this one man. This one man, who changed our lives forever, for the worse.

I just hope this puts an end to the war on terror. I hope this can be our real "Mission Accomplished" moment. And I hope I'm not just being too hopeful.

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Tariq Bashir, of Rosemount, is a Pakistani-American, who works as a risk analyst for a large financial institution. He is a source in MPR's Public Insight Network.

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