Yes. But just one last note: I saw a clip on the news last night where Nancy Pelosi said something similar. She also implied what I said earlier-- we might be safer as a coutnry if we just keep him on the run. Of course, Bush’s comments were in 2002, which was awfully early in the process to start backpeddling, and he was obviously trying to justify his not having caught the guy in the first place.
But having said that, it’s absolutely clear to me that Bush dropped the ball on cathcing him early on. That would’ve been the right time to do it. We can’t know if he would’ve caught him in Tora Bora, for instance, but he certainly would’ve had a better chance of doing so if he hadn’t been distracted by Iraq.