Keeler: Is this a true turning point?

Bob Keeler is a member of Newsday's editorial board.

Ever since that perfect day in September turned into utter horror a decade ago, we've had a national longing for a turning point in what used to be called the global war on terror. The new candidate for recognition as a historic hinge in this endless war is the death of Osama bin Laden.

First in the phalanx of turning points was the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein statue in the streets of Baghdad. Then there was the "Mission Accomplished" speech on the deck of an aircraft carrier, the capture of Hussein and his execution.

The election of Barack Obama, who separated himself from the Democratic pack by his opposition to the unnecessary war in Iraq, seemed like another turning point. Obama did stop using the phrase "war on terror," and he did move us closer to an exit from Iraq -- but only at the cost of further escalation in Afghanistan.

All those turning points have come and gone, but the endless flow of young American men and women to Iraq and Afghanistan has continued. So has the tragic flow of flag-draped coffins returning home to the United States.

Now bin Laden is gone. My own preference would have been a capture, a trial and decades in prison to contemplate the evil of his acts. But I can see why many would fear a bin Laden trial as far too painful to contemplate. The reality is that he's dead, his body below the waters and beyond the reach of those who might have been inclined to make his final resting place into a pilgrimage site.

But it's way too early to know whether his exit will be a real pivot point, something we can look back on many months from now with gratitude, or just another illusory wrinkle lasting only a few news cycles.

Long before we know the answer to that, we'll have to figure out the role of Pakistan. Either its intelligence service knew of his presence in that mansion and didn't let on, or somehow failed to notice. Either way, America's relationship with Pakistan needs work.

But the biggest question of all is this: Now that bin Laden is off the stage, how will our government justify continuing to send young Americans to Afghanistan, a futile struggle that has lost the support of most of the American people?

If we use the death of bin Laden as our moment to declare victory and bring all our young people home from Afghanistan, it will have been the turning point that we've all been wanting. If our presence in that war simply continues, we may well come to see all the current celebrations as premature, unsatisfying and hollow.