Posted on 10/14/2004 5:50:29 AM PDT by OESY
As John Kerry tells it, Tora Bora is the place where President Bush let Osama bin Laden get away....
Well, that's not the way the battle's commanders remember it. The Afghanistan war was led by Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. Central Command, and his deputy, Lt. Gen. Michael "Rifle" DeLong.... To them, Mr. Kerry's version of the battle of Tora Bora is revisionist history.
...Gen. Franks, on the campaign... for George W. Bush,... said it's wrong to assume that bin Laden was hiding out in Tora Bora. Some intelligence reports put him there, he says, but others placed him in Pakistan, Kashmir or Iran....
[A]l Qaeda leaders had fled to Tora Bora, where they holed up in the mountains' vast network of caves. The cave complex was built in the 1980s as a sanctuary for the mujahedeen fighting the Soviets and was equipped with food, water, weapons, electricity and a ventilation system. Bin Laden used it as his headquarters in the mid-1990s. There were hundreds of tunnels, some many miles long, with exits over the border in Pakistan.
Afghanistan is full of rough country, and the jagged peaks of the Tora Bora area are about as rough as it gets -- up to 13,000 feet and covered in snow and ice. "Surrounding" the area... was impossible....
The U.S. commanders made the decision to embed a team of U.S. special forces and CIA agents into every Afghan unit. Like the Afghans, the Americans rode horses or, in the higher altitudes, walked. The special forces carried communications equipment that allowed them to talk to their commanders and to call in air power. Which they did with stunning effect -- demolishing cave-openings and skipping bombs with delayed fuses deep inside. Hundreds of al Qaeda fighters died. No American life was lost....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I don't think Condi has any desire to run for elected office, especially at that level. Rudy would be balanced by Tommy and would not have that much influence on policy in the VPOTUS spot. IMO.
We'll see. I wonder if Rudy will undergo some conversions in the next 4 years? Sort of Road To Damascus moments. I guess it will depend if he has to face Hil for the Senate or if he goes for the Governorship.
That "loser" has planned and schemed with every breath God has given him throughout most of his life, with help from some very influential people to "invent" himself apparently since before Vietnam, and he has gotten this far - -
- - only, he seems not to have factored in the God who gave him every breath having some say in the affairs of men and in just how far he would be allowed to go.
Bush should've said, "glad I'm wearing boots."
In my mind, OBL is DEAD. The man was an egomaniac and camera hungry.
If he were alive today we know it for sure.
So someone hand JKerry a shovel and a map cause he's gonna need something to do after Nov 2.
I do frequently read the WSJ and IBD. Unfortunately I live far enough out in the boons that I can't get home delivery and have to stop on my way to work to pick it up. The aggravation of going to a shopping center, fighting for a parking place, and standing in line to buy the thing is most of what stops me from getting it more often. But as you say it's often worth it.
I've thought about this a lot, Risk. We are not going to endure the same thing again because there is something different about this election. We knew Clinton was slick - assumed that everyone would get it - and enough didn't 'get it' that we had 8 years of him. But it was mainly an idealogical struggle with the Clintons, though their ideology has gotten us into the security mess we are in.
This election has an added urgency because we are clearly at war. What is disheartening is that 47% of the people seem to think environmental issues, gay rights, abortion on demand, stem cell research, etc. are more important than our very survival as a nation. I think many of those folks hope that America does NOT survive as a democratic republic. That we are nearing a majority of citizens who believe that America is a heavy-handed threat to world security is a scary thought.
As I have said before, this election is like a medical test to see what the health of the republic really is. Many of us are pretty apprehensive about getting a copy of the results.
A_R
This is the first time I ever heard that OBL could be in Kashmir. It makes perfect sense though. He could hide there and no country could send in a large force to try to get him without upsetting the delicate balance on the sub-continent. Very interesting.
That's my ticket too!
Dr. Frist seems to be OK, too.
Electiing Kerry will be tantamount to national suicide.
Maybe you're right. I seem to be a 1-issue voter. I buy into the idea that. The second amendment insures the others.
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