Posted on 11/28/2009 10:06:09 AM PST by BGHater
As President Obama vows to “finish the job” in Afghanistan by sending more troops, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has completed a detailed look back at a crucial failure early in the battle against Al Qaeda: the escape of Osama bin Laden from American forces in the Afghan mountains of Tora Bora in December 2001.
“Removing the Al Qaeda leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat,” the committee’s report concludes. “But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide.”
The report, based in part on a little-noticed 2007 history of the Tora Bora episode by the military’s Special Operations Command, asserts that the consequences of not sending American troops in 2001 to block Mr. bin Laden’s escape into Pakistan are still being felt.
The report blames the lapse for “laying the foundation for today’s protracted Afghan insurgency and inflaming the internal strife now endangering Pakistan.”
Its release comes just as the Obama administration is preparing to announce an increase in forces in Afghanistan.
The showdown at Tora Bora, a mountainous area dotted with caves in eastern Afghanistan, pitted a modest force of American Special Operations and C.I.A. officers, along with allied Afghan fighters, against a force of about 1,000 Qaeda fighters led by Mr. bin Laden.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
bush’s fault 2.0
IMHO. He is either buried in Tora Bora or alive and well living as a pasha in some Iranian Casbah.
Iran hates hims, he’s probably dead.
I don’t remember reading that in a decade of studying him, but you could well be right and I missed something.
I wonder if the villagers made a beeline out of there to avoid becoming collateral damage?
They forgot to mention that if Clinton had allowed the CIA to kill OBL when we had the chance, we wouldn’t have been in Afghanistan in the first place.
They’re just setting the ground for surrendering in Afghanistan, covering Obama’s *ss as usual while throwing Kerry a bone.
Did we help that during the Soviet conflict, or more sooner, from the Saudis?
Our politicians are studying this 10 years later? What a waste of time. They have nothing better to do, especially when looking at what’s happening in our own country right now? Leave this up to historians and go after Bin Laden and get this over with.
Perfect...Thanks!
isn’t that the image running next to the ticker on NBC....
Yep, or the fact that Rumsfeld and Frank's strategy had routed the Taliban and that gave us the chance to corner OBL at Tora Bora.....
This is an ordinary U.S. military history. It was written in 2007, during Bush’s administration.
I have, and have read the history of Okinawa, which is available online.
http://www.history.army.mil/BOOKS/WWII/OKINAWA/
It has started. They are losing on immigration, health care and global warming, so attack the right for not fighting the war properly.
They also didn't mention if our side knew that Bin Laden was there within our grasp. We know the answer to that in your example.
I have been looking for the name of the Congressman who blurted out that were tracking Bin Laden by satellite phone. Can anyone tell who it was?
I think Bin Laden has reached the Big Foot level of fairy tales.
But the only thing that is supposed to matter to us is that Bush failed to capture UBL. We're supposed to just ignore all the rest. Uh, huh. Right.
Nice try, Dems.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.