Karl Rove: Remembering the First Blow Against al Qaeda

Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.

It was a fitting end: The brutal terrorist who aspired to create an Islamic caliphate that stretched from the Straits of Malacca to Gibraltar was found hiding in a walled compound, isolated and reduced to communicating in fitful spurts by courier. It was the identity of a courier—patiently traced by intelligence professionals for four years—that eventually brought Navy SEALs to Osama bin Laden's doorstep.

The founder of al Qaeda received what he had been promised. "Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done," President George W. Bush said on Sept. 20, 2001. A decade later his successor, having made a wise and politically gutsy decision to put the U.S. military on the ground to confront bin Laden face to face, was able to announce that justice had indeed been done.

It is fitting today that we recall what was, in retrospect, the first victory in the war on terrorism. By doing so, we can recognize a 9/11 obligation that every American can help fulfill.

Ten years before highly trained Navy SEALs stormed bin Laden's compound, 40 ordinary people went into combat. They died in a field in Somerset County, Pa., having sacrificed their lives so other Americans might live. They likely prevented the destruction of the United States Capitol or the White House...