We are not celebrating the act of killing as pointed out in Andrew Villeneuve’s May 6 column. Rather we are celebrating a victory over the mastermind of terrorist acts.

Never forget that Osama bin Laden and his followers have made a career out of killing and maiming innocent men, women, and children — just because these innocents don’t subscribe to his radical and misguided ideology. We will never emulate that.

We have built many real – not proverbial – bridges, plus schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure. But bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda and associated Taliban have burned and otherwise destroyed so much in already strife-torn countries.

In 1998, bin Laden declared war on America. We still have every right to defend ourselves.

We have had troops in Afghanistan because Al-Qaeda has maintained terrorist training camps, command and control centers, and bases of operations there. Intelligence from any place in the world where we had troops could help locate bin Laden. Perhaps we have not succeeded in instituting a stable and democratic government in Afghanistan, but should we have not even tried to “make peace” by those efforts?

We fully recognize that we cannot defeat terrorism through military might alone. We have “bent over backwards” to “win the hearts and minds” of the average individuals whose lives have been co-opted in those countries infected with terrorism.

We put our military at additional risk by trying to avoid civilian casualties. We live in an increasingly dangerous world. Unfortunately, to counteract hatred and violence and stop terrorism, we must include the threat or use of force. With rare exceptions, terrorists perceive “extending the olive branch” only as weakness and an opportunity for further violence on their part.

We do not fear reprisals for killing Osama. We may find it prudent to heighten our level of alertness. But never mistake that for paralyzing fear! Let those who will not renounce terrorism be very, very much afraid!

Larry Happ, Redmond