# What happens if OBL leaves Afghanistan **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 17, 2001, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-obl-leaves-afghanistan/87927 "2001-10-17T06:38:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-obl-leaves-afghanistan/87927/1 "2001-10-17T06:38:52Z")
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011016/us/attacks\_where\_s\_bin\_laden.html](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011016/us/attacks_where_s_bin_laden.html) According to this article, Osama bin Laden may be planning to flee Afghanistan and hide out somewhere else. Of course I realize that not everything that appears in a single article is true, and this article doesn’t provide nay evidence other than those unnamed “U.S. intelligence officials”. But suppose for a minute that he actually does depart Afghanistan and go somewhere else. What happens to our war against the Taliban then? Will people (both in the US and elsewhere) still support our attacks against the Taliban if they aren’t sheltering him any more? And can we simply move on to beating up any country that he happens to move to? ---
**Author:** ![Testy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@Testy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Testy)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-obl-leaves-afghanistan/87927/2 "2001-10-17T11:31:56Z")
Well, my own opinion is that his escape from Afghanistan shouldn’t make the slightest difference to our campaign. Aside from getting our hands on the guy, we also need to make Afghanistan less welcoming for him in the future. That implies removal of the Taliban. If some other country welcomes him the way Afghanistan did/does then yes, we should “beat them up” as well. Testy.