The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.
Funny, just yesterday I e-mailed this to Gary:
“Have they even a slight clue as to whether he’s alive or dead? I mean, to committ half the free world’s emotions, military strength, not to mention cash to the killing and/or capture of just one man… you’d think that a corpse would have surfaced by now. For God’s sake they can find the teeth of 5 million year old sub-humans… they can find one hair or fingernail from this guy? They can spot fly shit from orbit and they can’t find this guy? They can “see” through mountains using all manner of technology to find people? And they can find him? Nonsense…
To which, he replied:
“My guess is they are not looking all that hard, but wheeling out the cart and pony act of looking for him. As long as there is threat out there, the politicians can keep our attention. That is really all there is too it, in my opinion, playing the voters like puppets!”
For a minute, I thought… no, they wouldn’t be doing that. Not given the emotional state of the nation after the attacks. The wouldn’t have the nerve to try that… sort of like Ronnie’s war on drugs… I.E. “Keep an enemy in the face of the people at all times” mentality. But, after reading this I really think that Gary is right. Quite right.
And why not, it is common knowledge now that F.D.R. manupilated the Pearl Harbor disaster to rally the nation behind the war effort… for whatever inexplicable reason, it is more than a fact that we looked the other way when the Japanese flew in. Back then politics was about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the head. Imagine what can be done with an incident like 9/11, given the tools and techniques politicians have now.
Why would we think for a minute that they would not exploit this situation?