Posted on 10/01/2004 12:37:52 PM PDT by conservativo
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday rejected Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry's charge that the Bush administration had bungled a chance to catch Osama bin Laden in late 2001.
Powell was responding to Kerry's accusation in Thursday's presidential campaign debate with President Bush that U.S. military commanders had let the al Qaeda leader escape from the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan.
Kerry said Bush had "outsourced" the mission to Afghan warlords who were former allies of the Taliban regime.
"I think it's a stretch to say that they knew he (bin Laden) was there and they knew it at the time the battle was going on," Powell said following a speech to the Atlanta Press Club. "I have no reason to believe that our commanders mishandled that."
U.S.-led forces ousted the fundamentalist Taliban rulers shortly after a fierce battle in Tora Bora in December 2001. It is believed that bin Laden slipped out of the heavily-bombed region around this time, possibly fleeing into Pakistan.
Powell said U.S. and Pakistani forces were continuing to search for bin Laden, whose al Qaeda network carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Powell denied Kerry's suggestion that the U.S.-led war in Iraq had diverted attention and resources from the hunt.
The United States and its allies had made progress in the past three years rebuilding Afghanistan and preparing the western Asian nation for presidential elections, Powell said.
Some 10.5 million Afghans, from a population of between 25 million and 28 million, have registered to vote in the Oct. 9 election. However, there have been allegations of multiple registrations.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Have all of Kerry's lies from the debate been tallied?
I'm not sure; maybe you'll start the process. Or try debatefacts.com; that's the RNC's site for responses to Kerry's lies during the debate.
Bush should have responded:
You say we missed him, I don't know, someone as self centered as yourself or Osama couln'd possible stop appearing on television to make an ass of himself, could he, could you?
17 and counting.
i think he better watch what he says sometimes,the dems are going to use it..i know powell is used as bait sometimes,(good cop-bad cop) but still
What was the name of the camp that we thought Bin Laden was at which we had Predator video from in 2000?
This complaint comes from the man who wants to outsource our military decision making process to the French and other EuroWeenies?
THERE WAS A MOMENT in last night’s Presidential Debate that got me angry – and it probably wasn’t the same moment you’re thinking about right now.
KERRY: It is vital for us not to confuse the war, ever, with the warriors. That happened before. And that's one of the reasons why I believe I can get this job done, because I am determined for those soldiers and for those families, for those kids who put their lives on the line. That is noble. That's the most noble thing that anybody can do. And I want to make sure the outcome honors that nobility.
Kerry is promoting a fallacy here. You can’t completely separate the war from the warriors, because we’re the ones that plan and execute the war. Kerry would have you believe that the President has a sand table in the White House War Room, where he gathers his generals around him and commands them on how to fight the war. He’s telling us that he could do a better job directing those generals than Bush has.
Bullshit.
This is not a military dictatorship. The President makes the decision to go to war, after consulting with Congress. He may even approve or veto specific military strategies. But he does not write the war plan – the Pentagon does that. Our war planners are some of the most brilliant, thoughtful, and well-educated warriors on the planet. They’ve studied Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and Mahan. They’ve dissected and analyzed all the major battles in history, from Thermopylae to Desert Storm. They know about logistics, intelligence, artillery, air support, guerilla tactics, and psychological warfare. They are professionals – the best of the best.
The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who fight these battles are not automatons. We teach our warfighters to think and react. We train them to adapt to the situation on the ground, and learn from their mistakes. And we are proud of what we have accomplished. When Kerry calls Iraq “a grand diversion,†and “the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time,†he insults all of us, and denigrates our efforts.
But Kerry also criticizes President Bush directly for making specific mistakes. For instance, several times during the debate, Kerry accused Bush of “outsourcing†the war in Afghanistan, and letting Bin Laden get away at Tora Bora.
KERRY: Unfortunately, [Bin Laden] escaped in the mountains of Tora Bora. We had him surrounded. But we didn't use American forces, the best trained in the world, to go kill him. The President relied on Afghan warlords and he outsourced that job too. That's wrong.
So here’s my question for Senator Kerry, the armchair general (who served in Vietnam, don’t you know):
What would you have done differently in Afghanistan?
Presumably, he would have used American military forces, instead of “outsourcing†the effort to local warlords. But what forces where available in theater at the time? The first large contingent of conventional forces in Afghanistan, a brigade of 1,000 US Marines, arrived at an airstrip near Kandahar on November 25, 2001. That city, which had been the last stronghold of Taliban leader Omar, didn’t fall to anti-Taliban forces until December 7.
The only other US forces in Afghanistan at the time were Special Forces, and CIA paramilitaries. Their job was to help organize the various militias into a coherent force capable of defeating the Taliban, and to call in Coalition air strikes as required. It was this combination of Special Forces and local militia that had already driven the Taliban from the strategic city of Mazar-e-Sharif, the airbase at Bagram, and the capital Kabul.
The only US military on the ground at Tora Bora was a contingent of about two dozen Special Forces who were airlifted in to the area on December 2. Their mission was to coordinate the ground attack and to “laze†targets for US bombers. There is no way that these men could have taken Tora Bora without assistance – And the Marines in Kandahar already had their hands full. In any event, Tora Bora was completely overrun by December 12 – but not before the al Qaeda leadership escaped to Pakistan.
Let’s make one thing clear: outside of this “outsourcing†plan, there would have been no significant military action in Afghanistan prior to November 25 – but by the time those first Marines arrived, the Taliban had already been largely defeated. “Outsourcing†the war in Afghanistan was not Bush’s idea. It was the Pentagon and the CIA that came up with this plan. But President Bush did approve it, and it worked.
The only military alternative to this plan would have been a massive invasion of Afghanistan with several heavy divisions. Of course, these divisions would have had to get to Afghanistan by coming ashore in Pakistan and driving through the ungoverned (and largely hostile) Tribal Areas, where the Pakistani army wouldn’t even go. In any event, it would have taken several more months for these forces to arrive in theater – plenty of time for the terrorists to dig in and prepare for the fight.
Does anyone see any problems with this plan? It seems to me that the Russians tried this approach a while back, and the British before them. Both got their asses handed to them. Nevertheless, I’m sure that the Pentagon presented this option to Bush, with all of the caveats above. In my judgement, Bush was right to reject this plan, and go instead with the “outsourcing†approach.
Presented with the same options, would Kerry have made the right decision? Judging from his remarks last night, I’d have to say “no.â€
But if we don’t elect him, we’ll never have to find out.
Maybe we can bribe the sectret service to drop the lurch into Tora Bora for a personal investigation
This site claims to check both of their facts:
http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=271
I have not read it yet, but will do so soon.
Actually, it gets worse. I was reading Tommy Franks' autobiography (which I highly recommend) over lunch today, and he said we couldn't have done the job we did in Afghanistan without our allies there, because they knew every nook and cranny of the mountains -- intelligence we simply could not have gotten. Without their help we couldn't have done the job we did. Sadly, he besmirched their good name for political advantage, just as he likes to do everywhere.
He also said they didn't need any more people in Afghanistan, so Kerry's remarks about insufficient resources devoted there are nonsense. He would have been given more people if he'd requested them.
D
Why is it that today there is such great equivocation over whether bin Laden was at Tora Bora?
Did we drop all that ordnance there for no reason?
Do all you FReepers who think he died there now think we "don't know if he was there or not"?
Before the post-debate spin, I don't think I've heard anyone question the CW that he was there, at least at the beginning of the action.
A lukewarm response, at best. McCainesque, and so typical of Powell.
How 'bout Clinton's bungle to take a Bin Laden handoff from the Sudan....three times?
I think Rush is up to 17 so far.
Kerry spoke too much and now it is going to hurt. All of his "facts" are going to be checked and found out to be BS. Bush's camp will resond from a number of different directions. Be prepared to hear Cheney go at these facts in the VP debate.
JOHN KERRY OWES AN APOLOGY TO THE SURVIVING FAMILES OF THE AMERICAN SERVICEMENT WHO DIED AT TORA-BORA ATTEMPTING TO GET AT BIN LADEN, WHERE HE CLAIMS THE WAR WAS "OUTSOURCED"
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