OK, I know people have explained this before, but it still eludes me somehow. I just don’t understand the possible logic behind this. The only way I can analyze it is Bush saying “can’t win, say it doesn’t matter.”
Given the sheer amount of “let’s get Osama” speeches and propaganda and bumper stickers and political cartoons post-9/11, it would have seemed at the time that Bush saying “nah, he doesn’t matter” would be absolutely impossible.
Can someone please explain this logic to me in clear words?
BTW, I think the funniest thing ever ** would be the Europeans capturing Osama and trying him before the ICC… Bush would probably be fuming inside his head while Rove told him to congratulate them.
** other than Bush being tried before the ICC some day.
Osama got away. Bush wanted to go on his adventure in Iraq. Bush went on his adventure in Iraq and “took care” of the Osama problem by fobbing it off on the Pakistani government, who had an entrenched Islamist population of their own they had to placate, so did nothing about it. Bush then stated that Osama was not a concern.
Voila! We won! See?! If you don’t you’re a lousy terrorist-lovin’ commie and why do you hate America so much anyway?!
It’s also easier to keep the populace frightened if you can drag out the Menacing Spectre of Osama Bin Laden™ out from time to time. Kinda hard to use him as a bogeyman if everyone knows he’s cooling his heels in a cell somewhere.
A related question is how anyone can call the “War on terror” a success with this gaping failure on the books.
Hey, so we didn’t get the two symbolic leaders of the Islamist terrorist movement and fanatical oppression, Osama and Mullah Omar. Whaddaya want? “Tora Bora” is Pashtun for Swiss Cheese. Sorta.
But, if you look behind door number B, you’ll see that we got all kindsa yack herders and poppy-growin’ beardlings shackled to posts in sunny and temperate Guantanamo Bay. Victory is sweet!
Ever read 1984? Does the name Emmanuel Goldstein ring a bell? Try reading “THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF OLIGARCHICAL COLLECTIVISM”. And, on a quick Google search I found someone else had already made this observation:
Just my opinion, and not even an original one, but it makes perfect PR sense to say that Osama’s no longer a priority if, as seems to be the case, the US has no clue as to his present whereabouts and/or he is in a location where the US would have great difficulty in getting to him without possibly sparking a major conflict with another nuclear-armed power. I’m not saying it’s honest, exactly, just that the last thing the administration needs is lots of people baying ‘where’s Osama?’ if they have no practical way of producing him.
In any event, Osama appears to be ‘contained’ from the standpoint that no terrorist actions have been carried out on US soil since 2001. If you don’t look under the bed, maybe the monster won’t be there.
Bush needs a well-known “badguy” out there to keep up support for his search of WMDs. If they caught Osama and Saddam cooling his heels in the pokey, who would Bush go after next, the leader of North Korea? Yeah OK. Peace.
Hey, they’re not shackled to posts! They’re just held incommunicado in nice air-conditioned cells!
In any case, Osama has to be forgotten now that Obama (Senator Barack Obama) is the new threat to the GOP “Enduring Majority.” Otherwise, Shrub will get all confused… or something.
Still waiting for some low-level scribe of the Church of Almighty Gop to put out a mailing with the headline: “Obama: Sin Laden”
According to President Pinhead himself, we are unsuccessful in our attempts to find Bin Laden because “He’s hiding.” If only OBL would play fair and come out and wave to us. :o
Fifteen hundred highly paid government bureaucrats have jobs “searching for Osama.” If they find him, they no longer have jobs.
Do the math.
Tris
“The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness…This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.” ~ Plato ~
Maybe if we changed your question to why Osama is not a priority ?
I’ll try. Basically Osama is now more of a “symbolic” figure. Naturally capturing him would make for some nice PR (probably would have given Bush a big election win instead of a measly one). AQ is now spread out… and ObL isn’t a key component. AQ members are now in a way “consultants” and marketing experts. They give local wackos more expertise and more PR by giving them the AQ “brand”. Osama just hides away mostly.
Also if they do kill Osama… he will just become a martyr. If they portray him as a prisoner too. Its a lose - lose proposition for the US and its quite hard to capture ObL too. Not much reason to make much of an effort ?
Add to that the probable fact that he is in Pakistan in the tribal areas… in order to really have a chance at getting him would mean pushing Musharraf too much. Or adding to much fuel to Pakistani extremist elements that could topple Musharraf and give control of Pakistani nukes to some radical islamic elements.
Three and a half years ago, he went from being virtually unknown to public enemy number one, and probably the man more people would want to see killed than any other, in a matter of a few hours. Now, he’s “not a threat”?
I think I’m going to try to become a politician, and eventually infiltrate the white house and become a close confidant of the president, so that when this happens next time, I’ll be able to laugh at how 300 million people in this country, and several billion in other ones, will have no idea what the president is thinking, and I will.
Because the US knows by bitter experience he’s very hard to catch. Especially now if, as theorised, he’s hiding out in places even the local powers can’t touch. Saying “Yes we’d still like to get him (but don’t hold your breath)” would blow a huge hole in The War on Terror (and rightly so IMO). I strongly disagree with the theory he’s more useful as an active bogeyman. Bogeymen are never in short supply (Osama > Saddam > Zarqawi) and the political capital from his capture would be hard to exaggerate.
Virtually unknown? He has been a primary target of the US government for a decade. Anyone who knew squat about terrorism knew the name “Osama bin Laden”. Hell, if you even bothered to watch the news after the embassy bombings, you knew the name “Osama bin Laden.”
I do hate to be a nuisance and all, but there are people searching for Osama at this very moment. They just aren’t talking to moveon.org about it. I’m quite certain Special Forces troops and people from the Operations Directorate of the CIA are in the region that he is hiding in. It is slow, dangerous work. And if they catch him alive, they will tell noone. They will interrogate him and try to find out everything he knows…and when he is an informational dry hole, they will trot him out.
If he is killed during the capture attempt, they will also keep it quiet to avoid inflaming the muslim fundamentalist population of Pakistan. In fact, for all any of us outside the loop know, he may already be dead.
EO:In fact, for all any of us outside the loop know, he may already be dead.
It would have to be pretty recent, though, wouldn’t it? From what I heard, he appeared to be in good health in the video he released last October, which must have been made no earlier than the previous summer.
