Geronimo!

Like many of you, I never gave up hope that the world’s most brutal terrorist would be brought to justice. However, after almost 10 years, it was beginning to become a pipe dream. Imagine my delight when President Obama made his late-night announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan.

What a triumph for this country! The announcement of bin Laden’s demise demonstrates that our nation has the strength and steadfast determination to deal with the most vicious of terrorist thugs. Particularly for the families who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, May 1 will now become one of the proudest moments in American history.

It was indeed cause for celebration and a great day to be an American.

The president deserves our respect and applause. He never lost sight of the ultimate goal in the war on terror: to bring justice to all those murdered by bin Laden and his cronies. His leadership as commander in chief enabled the men and women of our nation’s armed services to accomplish the mission.

The team of brave Navy SEALs were able to kill bin Laden in the first few minutes of their 40-minute mission. We’ve since learned that the CIA obtained information last August that a top-ranking Al Qaeda member was being sheltered at a large compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, about an hour outside the nation’s capital, Islamabad. Through tips and extensive investigations, the CIA and other intelligence analysts concluded that there was about a 60 percent chance that bin Laden was living on the property.

John Brennan, deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism, said that the president’s call to go ahead with the mission was one of the “gutsiest calls of any president in recent history.”

I couldn’t agree more. Obama launched a military attack in Pakistan, a sovereign nation with nuclear capabilities, without its government’s permission. While Pakistan is viewed as our ally in the war against terror, I have always had reservations and am disturbed that bin Laden was living a relatively normal life with his family in a compound just half a mile from a military academy akin to our West Point, and not far from Islamabad.