The Battle is Won but the War Continues

Zero Dark Thirty ends with Maya, the protagonist, boarding a C-130 when the pilot asks her where he needs to fly her. The movie ends before she responds. This gives the audience two messages to take away from the movie's ending. The first deals directly with Maya. Before the raid begins, another CIA official asks Maya if she worked on any projects before Bin Laden. The answer was her life's work was hunting down the terrorist leader. So, once Bin Laden is killed, her life's mission fulfilled, but also no clear direction of where to go next. She doesn't have a family to go home to, the only friends we know of are her co-workers, a few of whom die earlier in the film, but she is still young and just getting started as a CIA agent. Regardless of where Maya goes after the final scene, we can all agree that it should involve some awards and praise.
On a similar note to Maya, the final scene also sends a message about the War on Terror. As it has been said many times, what makes the War on Terror different and difficult is the type of enemy America is facing. We are fighting organizations and individuals, not nations and armies. Our enemy's goal is not for them to win, but for us to lose and there are no front lines. It is very hard to determine when we win because of how unconventional a war this is. Zero Dark Thirty portrays what is the largest, but not final, victory in the War on Terror. When Bin Laden died, the face for terrorism died with him. There are still many terrorists operating throughout the world, and Al-Qaeda still exists, but the man many Americans see as the enemy is defeated. The troops have almost entirely pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan. The "War" is over, but the enemy is not defeated. That is where the final scene comes in. Just like how Maya doesn't know where to go with her life, the death of Bin Laden has no clear next step for the War on Terror. What do we do next? What can we do next? Although killing Bin Laden may have given many Americans closure on the War on Terror, the fight is not over. The War on Terror might very well be our generation's Cold War. Even if there isn't a traditional "war" going on, the military, CIA, and similar government institutions need to stay on their toes to protect the American people.