(Osama) Out of juice

U.S. News- Washington Whispers ^ | 04/28/03 | Anna Mulrine

[Pokey78]

Remember Osama? When the feds last week lowered the national alert from orange to yellow, it wasn't just because of Saddam's inability to hit us at home. The new level also reflects a lower threat posed by bin Laden's bombers. As one top counterterrorism official said before the invasion: "If there's a war on Iraq and they don't light us up, they've lost their friggin' juice." No one's letting their guard down, but folks in Washington are breathing a bit easier.

[Arpege92]

Somehow, this does not make me feel any better. I would tend to think that letting our guard down is something the terrorists want us to do....strike us when we are not expecting anything, just like 9/11 and I can't ever be the same person I was on 9/10/01.

[Hugin]

Iraq? What about Afghanistan? They had a whole country, with an airline, passport office, diplomatic privelige, and training and supply bases. We took it all away, and they couldn't launch a single attack on US soil since then. The best they could do was failed attempts to blow up airliners (the shoe bomber and Kenyan missile attacks), and blowing up a night club in Bali. They are definitely weak and on the run. We just need to stop them from regrouping and rebuilding. Keep huntin' 'em down and smokin' 'em out.

[The Red Zone]

"light us up"... what do they mean? An attack? Or just a bunch of suspicious activity? If the latter, then either the threat has subsided or they've gotten a lot better at hiding.

[Zack Nguyen]

Our intel/special ops guys have done an outstanding job. My assumption was that we would have been hit at least once in the 18 months after 9/11.

[mikegi]

Al Qaeda is dead. We were fortunate that Bin Laden had no coherent strategy. We were ripe for panic-driven crash after 9/11. He didn't need a spectacular follow up attack, all he had to do was a series of simple truck bombs, Chechen-style hostage takings, etc. to make our government seem helpless. Now, we could take another hit and continue rolling.

What was UBL thinking? Was he as dumb as he seems? Didn't he know that we would wipe him and his cronies out in our response? He knew we would come at him with the Northern Alliance so he killed Massoud in an attempt to weaken them. Did he think that his vaunted Mujahideen would defeat our forces like the Soviets? I guess he forgot that the Muj were supported and organized by the USA and that's why the Soviets had to pull out. What an idiot.

[Clara Lou]

This tidbit makes perfect sense to me. The 9/11 attack on the US was the equivalent of an idiot stirring up killer bees. I think the fanatics recognize this. 72 virgins don't seem quite so inviting, I guess.

[boris]

Of course, there's still Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and a zillion other splinter groups itching to pull off a big one. And there are moles and sleeper cells still in business. But no need to worry.

[The Red Zone]

There are still idiots out there bidding for their 72 virgins, but they don't do it directly to America. I guess they only want to go for the virgins when they're good and ready LOL

[Humidston]

You are so right. And the saddest part is that we'll probably never be told how hard they all worked and what they accomplished!

[SamAdams76]

While I do not argue for complacency, I also believe that Al Qaeda is pretty much dead. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were the most visible events of the war on terrorism but they were not the only events. President Bush told us shortly after 9/11 that many facets of this war would be invisible to the American people. You can be sure that we took out a lot of terrorists besides those in Afghanistan and Iraq through covert means. I just got done reading "Bush's War" by Bob Woodward (good read) and it documents how CIA agents were given suitcases full of cash to go abroad and "make things happen." The full story may never be told but I think it is a safe bet that we secretly "whacked" a lot of terrorists over the past 18 months.

Some argue that the terrorists are waiting for the right time to strike again. But I find it very hard to believe that they are sitting around while we totally destroy their networks and cut off their money supplies all over the globe.

The terrorists stated goal was to destroy the United States by attacking its economy. Think of the economic troubles just a few Stinger missles could have wreaked on our economy. All it would have taken was a couple of planes brought down by Stingers over Thanksgiving weekend (after 9/11) and the vast majority of Americans would be too skitterish to fly again anytime soon. Bring down another plane or two over the next few months and most Americans would vow to never fly again. I know that I wouldn't. I recently flew to Florida as hostilities were breaking out in Iraq and I was so nervous about the prospects of a SAM attack by some terrorist out on a raft that I flew out of Manchester, NH instead of Logan.

Anyway, I think we have devastated Al Qaeda and it is possible that they are finished for good. But I do not think we should end the war on terrorism. We need to keep on flushing them out and killing them. We must not stop until we have had several years without any terrorist attack whatsoever.

[gg188]

Osama lost his "pimp juice"?

[yooper]

Well, I don't mean to be a naysayer, but even if OBL is dead (and I believe he is), the next OBL, and the next, and the next, and the next, are out there somewhere. Contrary to what some people believe, we're at war against a religion, not a man.

[yooper]

"Al Qaeda is dead."

I strongly disagree. They may be quiet for awhile, and they may be a long time regaining their pre-911 strength, but they're not dead. They will only be dead when Islam is dead, and that ain't gonna happen.

[johndpringle]

Dear Pokey78,

Why should Osama have thought that the United States response to the September 11 was going to be any different than the Ramsi Yousef attack, the Kohbar Towers attack, the African Embassies attack and the USS Cole attack? Bill Clinton always promised to punish those responsible and did nothing but lob a few cruise missiles through some tents to hit some camels in the butt. If Al Gore had been elected President that is exactly all that would have happened. What he did not expect was that the United States had elected a true President. He did expect some kind of attack though because he did not attack until he had killed Massoud.

[Nick Danger]

What was UBL thinking? Didn't he know that we would wipe him and his cronies out in our response?

What would make him think that? He'd already bombed a marine barracks, an embassy, the USS Cole, and driven us out of Somalia with one gunfight. Every time he did one of those things, Clinton blew up one of his tents with a cruise missile. He had no clue what was coming.

Did he think that his vaunted Mujahideen would defeat our forces like the Soviets?

Yes, he did. He said so many times. He thought he'd already beaten the tough guys; we were going to be a piece of cake.

[fat city]

Oops. Thought this thread was about Osama the Baghdad Beer Man from another thread,selling out his stock. Good to know the boys can still buy brew.

[Martin Tell]

Look for something 14 months in from Nov. '04. Our regular election cycle makes us liable to attack during that period. Remember Tet during the primary season and Iran hostages one year before the '80 election? You know the Islamofascists gotta hate W now and they will stain every nerve to get a RAT into office.

[sinkspur]

While I do not argue for complacency, I also believe that Al Qaeda is pretty much dead.

9/11 was binLaden's one and only shot. He thought he was dealing with Clinton, and, instead, Bush has kicked his ass in Afghanistan, killed some of his top operatives, imprisoned others, and smashed Hussein as an added bonus.

binLaden calls for a jihad, and more Arabs get killed.

al-Qaeda's in a "going-out-of-business" mode.

[mikegi]

The full story may never be told but I think it is a safe bet that we secretly "whacked" a lot of terrorists over the past 18 months.

I'm sure we did. We had several leads on the 9/11 hijackers but never rounded them up. After 9/11, we rounded up a bunch of them. I also imagine that we throughly disrupted their weapons suppliers by posing as buyers and sellers. This would make everyone suspicious of everyone else and disrupt their acquisitions.

Some argue that the terrorists are waiting for the right time to strike again.

Nope. It really surprises me that they haven't been able to mount an attack on us somewhere in the world. I wonder if there is something going on a high levels in the Middle East - similar to the way Arafat can shut off the terror attacks against Israel. Whoever ultimately supports these terrorists was scared to death by the awful success of 9/11 (and possibly our stern warnings/actions afterwards) and shut them down. Of course, this also means that they can turn it again in the future. Maybe what we did in Iraq will suppress this (there's also the unresolved issue of the dead Saudi princes last year - since when does a Saudi prince die of "thirst" in the desert???).

All it would have taken was a couple of planes brought down by Stingers over Thanksgiving weekend (after 9/11) and the vast majority of Americans would be too skitterish to fly again anytime soon.

This is why I think UBL was (fortunately) a dummy. It didn't even have to be as spectacular as Stingers. Once you think like a terrorist and have no regard for human life, there are dozens of dastardly things you could do here in the USA to shake us up. Just sit in pickups near the end of a runways and fire AK47's and RPG's at jetliners as they land and take off, invade daycares and hold a bunch of children hostage, random bombings of shopping malls, multiple simultaneous large arson attacks in a single city, etc. Guaranteed 24x7 coverage for your cause on all the news.