Still Wanted: Dead or Alive
A pull-no-punches analysis of the current situation with the war on terrorism. Or, rather, the war in Afghanistan the we no longer want to talk about since we can't seem to find the men we're there to kill. I mean, any of them. The question is, does anyone else in the media or government have the stones to point this out and call a spade a spade. We went there to kill al Qaeda's and the Taliban's leadership. We haven't done that. Bin Laden may be on the run or in hiding, but he doesn't plan these things so much as finance them and act as a spiritual leader. The 9/11 attacks were hatched in a small apartment in Hamburg and other places in the western world. Bin Laden added the key element of money and connections that made the mission impossible without. He can still provide those to a small group of fanatics anywhere in the world. We've frozen assets, but we don't know if their bin Laden's or someone else's. We don't know where his money is. They're no longer in power in Afghanistan and that is important. We have not "smoke[d] them out." Moreover, there are a few countries that would hide bin Laden, accept his money and talent as a construction engineer (as Sudan did) as compensation. This is a very significant issue and is a major failing in our current military action. We've come up short in Afghanistan and don't have enough weapons to go into Iraq for about a year. Hopefully someone will start investigating these issues soon because they're not going away and are only going to get worse.
- posted by levinson @ 2/26/2002 09:31:00 AM