This Is What An Osama-Is-Dead Party Looks Like

via MSNBC

Within minutes of the news that Osama bin Laden was dead by the U.S.'s hand in Abottabad, Pakistan, the Internet was flooded with first reactions that have continued into the early morning. The media is jumping on burning questions: Is this victory symbolic or tangible? What does this mean for Obama's re-election (I'd say it's pretty damn good, if not definitive, news)? Many asked, including GOOD: does bid Laden's death make the world safer? What happens with Al Qaeda? With the U.S. and Pakistan? With oil prices?

While the pundits scrambled, crowds rejoiced around the world, with a special verve, of course, in the United States. Thousands gathered outside the White House and at Ground Zero. Frat-tastic scenes like the above at the University of Missouri formed spontaneously around the country. Everyone from birthers to Rachel Maddow have been going on a tweeting spree. We haven't seen this kind of happy fervor since...well, Obama was elected.

The country is enjoying an uneasy moment of unity last night, but let's be real about what's going on. It's surely a rush of relief and closure for those directly affected by the 9/11 attacks, and of hope for those overseas in uniform. But it's also laying bare how hungry we are for validation--a modicum of comfort that our trillion dollar war machine actually does something. bin Laden's death is validation for conservatives who backed George W. Bush and liberals who were waiting for Obama to step up his game. It's validation for a nation that was beginning to doubt whether its famous arrogance was actually deserved. It reassures us that the PATRIOT act took away our right to privacy for a reason, that those maddening hours in airport security weren't all for naught. It justifies the trauma, the fear, the sheer panic that the nation felt after the worst terrorist attack in our history.

This is, at bottom, an American reaction: uncomplicated, compensatory, combative, and optimistic. And yes, totally natural. Feminist blogger Jill Filipovic--skeptical as they come--posted, "Tomorrow I will go back to being a thoughtful and generous-hearted person. Tonight? Fuck that guy, get your air horn out."

Fair enough. But before we jump from party to punditry, we should be honest with ourselves about our country's deep-seated desire to show the world who's boss with a decisive victory, no matter how symbolic.