I knew the Bush administration was incompetent, but this suprises me.
Quoth Dex:
Added to that, last we knew, he had several chronic health problems, and he can’t be getting the best medical care out in the middle of nowhere. A heroic death as a martyr would certainly be widely publicized, but there’s not much his supporters can do with natural death by kidney failure, so the silence probably does mean that’s what happened.
But it doesn’t really matter anyway. Dead or alive, bin Laden has always been a symptom, not the problem himself. Even if he were dead (whether from natural causes or an acute case of high-velocity lead poisoning), someone would step up to take his place. And even if we were to completely wipe out the entire hierarchy of al Qaeda, some other terrorist organization would take their place. We need to either get so good at rooting out terrorists that we can catch them faster than they recruit (which seems unlikely to me), or win the morale war against them to prevent the next group from cropping up.
Iran and World Benny has croaked a while ago.
Bin Laden has sent 23 video or audio messages since the 2001 attacks. Many reference current events. Four have been sent in 2008. So we certainly have evidence that Bin Laden is alive, and none that he is dead.
No.
Tora Bora then.:smack:
Not that an incompetent like Bush could lay a finger BL if the guy was in the process of inserting himself ungreased up Bush’s own ass.
He put out a video message in September 2007, which makes it unlikely he died before the publication of this article in March 2007.
No matter who is president, even with a larger force on the lookout, catching Bin Laden is a very tall order. He’s surrounded by a small and apparently very loyal group and is hiding in a vast area that’s hard to get into and very hard to search. Finding him would take luck and probably a major, extended effort.
As opposed to his life, which has been used for the exact same things. I’m sure there would be retalation if he were killed, but he’s devoted his life to inspiring terrorism, so it’s not like he’s worth more in those terms if he is dead.
Martyrs, particularly to the religiously insane, are always worth more.
I don’t think that rule holds in his case. If he’s alive and free, he’s Robin Hood, if he’s dead, he’s a martyr. I can’t see one as much worse than the other.
Again, not all dead heroes are martyrs. If he were killed in an American attack, then he’d be a martyr, but death by natural causes does not a martyrdom make. If he were alive, then I would expect him to have commented on the US election, and if he were dead from enemy action, then I would expect his compatriots to have publicized the event as a martyrdom. Since neither of these has happened, I suspect that he has died of natural causes: It’s the only scenario that seems consistent with silence.
It’s always possible. I’m just not going to be sold in it without more proof.
Bush and Cheney need their boogie man to be alive to keep the Americans afraid. A lot of countries and sources say he is dead. The Israelis claimed his videos are faked.
Have you got a cite for that? Since Bush and Cheney will be gone in about seven weeks, are you expecting Obama to quickly announce that Bin Laden is dead?
Certainly Osama matters, unless you can’t catch him, then those who failed will say he doesn’t.
It’ll take decades for him to turn into a Castro, someone who was a thorn in your side, then just died off.
If Osama is in Pakistan, which doesn’t control it’s own borders, he’s safe. Pakistan has nukes, this is WHY countries want them, because even small amounts of nukes make you safe. If Iraq had nukes there would have been no attack on it.
http://www.nogw.com/download/2006_osama_dead.pdf There are sources that say he is dead. A teen could fake videos. There has been nobody who has laid eyes on him in a long time.
http://spaces.muxlim.com/UmmNaeema/blog/34288/osama-bin-laden-dead-in-case-you-haven-t-figured-it-out There are several sources like this around. They are convinced he died of natural causes.
In 2001, 2004 or 2006?
Fact is we do not know. Many middle east experts disagree. Pick one you like. I am open minded and do not know if he is dead or alive.
That’s not what you appeared to be saying earlier. I don’t know for sure either, but I think if there was convincing evidence he was dead, it would be public.
Thanks for the thought and clarification. OK, to add a bit of detail, I’m assuming that bin Laden’s future involvement with terrorist actions is very limited: giving his approval to plans brought to him, and ‘rallying the troops’ with the odd audio tape.
I definitely do not assume that his capture or death would have any significant effect on the number or organisation of terrorists. A ‘spike’ in terrorist action might occur as a form of retaliation.
I agree. There seems to be common ground here that given the uncertainty of his even still being alive, that making all that effort might not be worth it. So what would be a reasonable limit (dollars, manpower, time) beyond which the U.S government should abandon all efforts to bring bin Laden to justice?
I’d be surprised if this happened!
My main contention is that President Obama will go after bin Laden. It’ll take a while, won’t end any attacks, but will provide some closure.