Posted on 01/20/2006 7:06:55 PM PST by dennisw
There's something that doesn't sit right with me when, on the day Osama Bin Laden resurfaced in a disturbing audio tape, cable television ends up in a game of name calling as a war protester is compared to Osama Bin Laden.
That's reason to be outraged - but even more outrageous is the fact that in a flurry of sound bites what was lost was a real discussion of the fact that more than four years after the devastating attacks of 9/11, more than four years after George Bush boasted we wanted Osama "dead or alive," more than a year after Osama Bin Laden showed his hateful face in yet another video, this barbarian is still very much alive and boasting of additional attacks against the United States.
John Kerry's diary :: :: Here's what I'd like to see debated on Hardball.
President Bush's mouthpiece Scott McClellan can claim this administration puts terrorists out of business, but yesterday's tape reminds us that instead of being out of business, Osama is still out there.
If this administration had followed through on the opportunity to capture Osama Bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001, the world would be a better place with Osama Bin Laden brought to justice -- and we wouldn't be having this discussion today.
And here's what the media should insist we discuss.
President Bush and his defenders continue to claim that Osama Bin Laden didn't escape at Tora Bora. But Gary Bernstein's book Jawbreaker documents what I said early in 2002 and during my debates with George Bush: that because Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon didn't use American troops to do the job and instead outsourced the job of killing the world's #1 terrorist to Afghan warlords, this cold blooded killer got away.
So what's the truth? There's a question that the full force of cable television should demand be answered. Press accounts over the last month have raised new concerns about the reliance on Afghan forces at Tora Bora in 2001. One account cited a Department of Defense document said to summarize the case against a suspected al Qaeda militant. The militant was believed to have helped Osama bin Laden escape from Tora Bora. More recently, August Hanning, the head of German intelligence, has said bin Laden bribed Afghan forces at Tora Bora to make his escape.
The evidence keeps mounting:
Isn't it time we had the truth? Yes or no, did Osama Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora in 2001?
Here's a subject suited for true hard ball, on Hardball: four years of failure - enough is enough - why hasn't Osama Bin Laden been captured or killed, and how will he be destroyed before he next appears on tape to spread his disgusting message?
That discussion -- rather than criticizing American citizens who exercise their right to free speech and express dissenting opinions - is the discussion that America needs. That would be the kind of debate on Hardball to which we should all tune in.
John Kerry
P.S. I want you all to know that I’m reading your many comments. My wife Teresa reads blogs passionately, and I follow blogs too, and I’m glad I can be a part of this – and frankly I’m not worried about taking some slings and arrows along the way. I’ve faced worse! So keep the comments coming -- good, bad, hopefully not indifferent.
When Kerry was a war hero in Vietnam he failed to capture Ho Chi Minh, too. Oh, that's right, he and Ho were on the same side.
Come to think of it, have we ever seen Kerry and Osama at the same place and the same time? ,,,,,
"When they do, then we can compare the two."
But you are comparing the two.
Two completely different enemies. AQ is not a country and there will never be a surrender - we just won't here from those types anymore. You're being naive and inanely idealistic.
That looks like fun! I'd pay to do that! Maybe some kind of amusement park or carnival booth idea would work.
He wasn't a failure. But using Kerry's standard, one could argue he was right up to the point of the surrenders of Germany and Japan.
Hitler was dead and Germany unconditionally surrendered within 3.5 yrs of declaring war. What did FDR fail at? Victory was achieved over the enemy in under 4 yrs.
You completely missed the point.
When did I say AQ had surrendered? Never. When did I say FDR was a failure? Never--I said by Kerry's silly standard he would be considered one.
Has AQ unconditionally surrendered yet? Has the Iraqi insurgency? When they do, then we can compare the two.
Nope--we never CAN compare the two.
You seem as out of it as Kerry. My original point was that it was silly to claim that the War on Terror was the failure Kerry is trying to make it seem merely by focusing on the capture of one leader. The WOT and WW2 are completely different, and they can never be compared as you seem to want to in your final points.
MY only point was that measuring success based on the capture of a leader within 4 years--Kerry's point--is stupid. Apparently you seem to think it's not, and I can't help you with that.
If even our own FReepers can't grasp the difference between the WOT and a conventional war, with conventional yardsticks for success, we surely are in deep trouble.
I believe most conservatives would be fair and reasonable in that respect.
I don't understand your strange focus on "3.5" vs "4" years or whatever--you've completely overlooked my point in your effort to criticize Bush for not getting Osama.
My point--which is clear for anyone except those who can only grasp the literal--is that it took 4 years to get Hitler--and no, not everyone knew it; for several years there were questions about the identity of the man the Russians claimed was Hitler.
If Osama is indeed dead--I don't believe he is--then Bush will have been a success without us knowing it. But that's completely beside the point.
My point, for those who need it explained, is that a war's success can't be determined by the survival or death of the enemy nation's leader; by that yardstick, we didn't defeat Japan until over 40 years later. (Get it--Germany...Japan...defeated...one leader dead, the other not...'kay?)
"That's about 3.5 years by my count." OK. So what?
So you seriously believe that if UBL were killed on 9-12 we wouldn't still be in a War on Terror? Then I've got a website for you--"Democratic Underground," where they believe we are in (as you seem to believe) a conventional war, where if we only knock of ONE GUY, it all goes away.
This isn't a war like that. Kerry seems to think it is. Defend his math all you want, because that's not the problem; UBL isn't the problem, either. But he, and you, both seems to think bringing him in would be the same as if we brought in Saddam, or Hitler, or any number of leaders of conventional conflicts.
Lurch Lurch Lurch......just go away Loser boy. Thank the good Lord you will never ever be President. Go smooch off Tereaaazzer Heinz's millions and leave us be. Schmuck!
BTW, I live in Massachusetts, and in all seriousness, you never would know he was a vet. He NEVER talked about that part of his resume...unless he got cornered on a military funding issue, and then we got all the war stories.
I went and read all the people that were prostrating themselves before Kerry at the daily Kos. There were some truly screwed up people responding to his inane comment about Osama Bin Laden.
Its worth a look!
That post really got to me..
Thank GOD that scum bag didn't win..
Ms.B
Ya know, I bet if he'd mentioned that during the campaign, he might have gotten a few more votes.
What a scum bucket. So different from a George HW Bush or Bob Dole as far as their military service goes. I hated that "I'm reporting for duty" crap.
Can't be no farther than the Vineyard to Nantucket.
Well there is nothing manly about a kept man. Probably not a homo but way too effeminate for my tastes. I guess they call them metrosexuals. Obviously not Teresa's cup of tea either if you've ever seen how she scrunches away from him when he tries to kiss her. Still a mystery why a woman with her money would marry someone she has so little respect for.
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