I have heard they are in the Hindu Kush mountain range ungoverned by either nation. In any case, it doesn't appear Musharef or Karzi have the intel to bring them in. You want more $, fine, I'm not against throwing more money at the CIA, but I am against trusting that this war is going to be won by the CIA.
I think Truman made a great decision, but not for the exact reasons your citing. However, that was then and this is now.
What was then vs now? He "murdered" 10s of thousands of civilians. There wasn't any real strategic importance of either city, and the sole purpose was to demoralize the enemy.
You don't win wars by killing all the "important" leaders, you win by demoralizing your opponent. Stealing their will to fight. We have failed to do this so far, as all these new fronts in the war appear to be expanding in southern Russia, yesterday in Jakarta, a UK chopper went down in the Balkans today, not to mention continued bombings in Afganistan, Iraq and Israel....don't you worry that the enemy is undeterred? We should, this is poised to go on for the rest of our lives, and no amount of decapitating leadership is going to make much of a long term impact on the moon god worshipers.
This enemy is what I would call "liquid". It reminds me of hackers on the Internet. So damn hard to find and shut down.
Precisely my point, even when we finally do get Bin Ladin, we won't have a "VT" day to celebrate.
I'm sorry to say that given the expanse rather than the shrinking of this war that America is winning battles, but losing the war. Its because we aren't addressing the "root cause" which is not poverty, its Islam. No one can deny that the common denominator in all of this is Islam, but Bush et al want a sterile war where we talk about "evil doers" and "hijacking of a great religion" and my favorite "the religion of peace". I believe Bush is sincere, as well as strategic in not wanting 1 billion people against us, but I also believe Bush is wrong. 1 billion are already tacitly supporting our downfall. The "moderate muslim" who hates sharia and loves freedom exists in the same mythological place as the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the man-friendly lesbian.
War On Terrorism is too vague, this is a war on Islamicism, or Islamofacism. Since we agree that it is, it is time that address it...and I'm telling you, I'm pleading with you, the opportunity is there, the door is open, its just a huge challenge we aren't up to.
If something happened to center of Mecca, where the pagens still are forced to go for the Hajj as they were long before Muhammed, a place where Allah "lives" their whole worldview would come crumbling down. This is a faith based around Arabian nationalism and a single city, which has survived into the modern world, but like extinct species from different eras, it is destined to fall in the internet age. Why do you think they've become so agressive recently? They know that on some level.
Its up to us to expediate their placement on the ash heap of history before they consume us all and force us to bow to their 6th century ideals. Nazism, Communism and southern slavery were flawed systems but it took America to fight and die in order to dismiss these backwards tyrannies. So must it be with the Cult of Muhammed.
We seem to be in close agreement on a lot of things. I feel that nuking Mecca would no longer contain this anymore either. In fact, I think it would have the opposite effect we would desire at this time.
Agreed that the US is not calling a duck a duck on the religous part of the battle. That must change and I fear it will probably take a bigger attack we sustain for that last PR "niceness" to go away.