And the knowledge of that is precisely why I suspect we didn’t either go after him or press too hard to have him captured by the Pakistanis, elucidator.
Being boxed in is good enough compared to the other possibilities.
And the knowledge of that is precisely why I suspect we didn’t either go after him or press too hard to have him captured by the Pakistanis, elucidator.
Being boxed in is good enough compared to the other possibilities.
Agreed. The question regretably remains whether our leaders are wise enough to resist the temptation of a political windfall. I very much doubt it, and can only hope I’m wrong.
No it’s not. bin Laden has to be brought in or killed.
At any cost, Manny? Is there a price you won’t pay?
Utter tosh.
Besides, it would have to be something pretty special to get him alive. Highly unlikely, imho.
Probably just a junior trying to make a name for themselves on the State radio station.
I’d draw the line at irradiating a large section of Afghanistan, but I would have no objection to irradiating an otherwise sparsely inhabited valley or two. And yes, I know there’d be collateral damage.
Killing even one innocent in order to exact vengeance on one man is a morally repugnant notion.
Not so tough guy. There would be a lot of innocent, poor, dead people who you wouldn’t ever know or see images of but who were just trying to get through their crappy existences, taking care of their families.
Men, women, boy, girls, babies, or smouldering carcasses, actually.
Isn’t this about the infinity-plus-one-th time Iranian radio has reported this though? The only way I see these reports being of any interest is if we magically catch him the weekend before the election, in which case some serious BS will be called.
It’s a good question – one to which I don’t have a good answer. I will tell you that it is higher than “if some other country chooses to have a civil war over it” and it is much, much, much higher than “if every single person in Pakistan who opposes us finding bin Laden is killed.”
Granted, but sometimes it’s necessary.
If I were the adminstration and I had ObL in a bag somewhere I’d be VERY concerned over someone blowing the lid off it. The political pressure to get the news out now now NOW would be enormous and the potential political fallout of holding him without announcing it would also be enormous.
The American electorate, more than anything, hate politicians to behave in ways that are overtly political. Sure, the October Surprise is what it was…but imagine if 3 weeks prior to the 1980 election it was revealed in the New York Times that the Republicans were HOLDING UP release of the hostages for political gain? The House of Reps would have ended up 400-35 Democratic.
In short, if they do have him and are discovered to not be announcing it strictly so they can time it to maximize the electoral benefit it’s got a high probability of back-firing.
Heck, even if they don’t and the media decides they are (or it gets spun that way and the spin has legs) it could still backfire.
Well, come on, let’s assume that some media will definatel spin the capture this way no matter when it comes out.
Super Tuesday? They wanted to influence the ellections!
The Democratic Convention? They wanted to influence the ellections!
The Republican Convention? They wanted to influence the ellections!
A month or 2 before the general election? They wanted to influence the ellections!
A week or 2 before the general election? They wanted to influence the ellections!
I expect we will see copies of this Iranian news report in prestegious media sources before we’re done. Remember how quickly the major media decided to reprint the National Enquirer articles about Clinton’s affairs? Somehow, our media goes a little crazy around election time.
Heck, I’d lay odds that we’ll see stories like this even if the capture does not happen until after the election. We’ll simply see stories about how the administration wanted to try harder to capture him before the election to influence the election. Anyone want to bet?
Why, how very generous of you. I’m so touched that you’re willing to allow parts of a foreign country and a bunch of foreigners to get irradiated. Is no sacrifice too great for you to make? You’re a true humanitarian and patriot. Or something.
Can I turn this around on you guys for a second? If there were some nutjob in that valley lobbing nukes at you, would you still be relluctant to nuke it? Would you require that each and every single individual be proved beyond a reasonable doubt culpable in the attack before you would approve of a counter attack?
Unless you are, then we are merely talking about where to draw the line. In which case, you need to drop your one innocent death is too many. Unless you are willing to add the caveat “to find OBL”.
Now you’re thinking like OBL.
How does it make you feel to know you are just like him?
This news would be too big to keep a lid on it. They killed the Sons Hussein and we knew about it a few hours later. They captured Saddam and we knew about it a few hours later.
Any move to get him would involve storming a (probably well fortified) bunker or cave. It would take at least dozens of soldiers and operatives. It would take even more to securely transport and hold him. Even more to question him. The government would know the news would get out and how bad it would look if they had got him for more than a few days. A guy like ObL isn’t gonna spill his guts anytime soon anyway. Look at Saddam, he still isn’t cooperating (at least last I heard).
I don’t think the government has the capability to keep this under wraps for more than a few weeks. Which leads to two possibilities in my mind: they got him within the last few weeks and we should hear about it soon, or we don’t have him at all yet. Given how much stonewalling this administration has put up with the 9/11 commission, given how much dispute there has been over the 9/11 funds and so forth, I don’t think the administration would look to taint a prize of this magnitude with anything that even vaguely smells political. But I have overestimated this administration in the past…
I honestly don’t know what to think. It is not the first time the thought that he might be in captivity has crossed my mind. The first time was during the Meet the Press interview.
President Bush talked briefly about the continuing hunt for bin Laden and then there was this exchange:
I am aware that there are many circumstances under which that would be a perfectly appropriate response to the question. But that is the first time that it flitted through my mind They’ve got him!
That may have been a totally absurd reaction, I know. But I wasn’t all that surprised to see the accusation in the news today.
If Osama is captured then the Iranian news leak serves a 3-fold purpose:
The Iranians want to give Bush no credit for capturing Osama,
It looks good that Muslims are more than capable of taking care of their own problems, and
They decided that Musharraf be the main hero of the Muslim world, a more positive alternative to Osama.
October surprise, eh? My search turned up some sites of dubious objectivity, articles about an independent film, conspiracy nuts defending their theories, and this Congressional Report.