From a military outlook, the odds of apprehending Osama bin Laden looked good as soon as his complicity in the 9/11 attacks was established. This optimism began to fade after I watched the Bush Administration stumble over the months and years. After I watched the inept spectacle at Tora Bora, I was fairly certain that the Bush Administration would never come back with bin Laden's head in a sack. We've had some spectacularly incompetent generals and politicians over the last nine years.
The latest claim by Dick Cheney and Karl Rove is that bin Laden's demise in 2011 was brought about by the Bush Administration's waterboarding of suspects in 2002. I've given this some thought, but the time line doesn't check out. It's fairly easy to tell that neither Cheney nor Rove was ever in the military. Bin Laden must have enjoyed quite a vacation while he was being chased by the Bush Administration.
Neil Thex, Mesa
Dale Whiting posted at 8:16 am on Fri, May 6, 2011.
Neil,
Bin Laden complicity in the 9/11 attacks was established by his own video taped statements. Bush 43's decision to concentrate on Iraq and Saddam Hussein included disbanding the bin Laden dedicated intelligence gathering and analysis team.
The tactic used to ultimately defeat bin Laden is called "Counter-terrorism." It was championed by Stanley McChrystal first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq [the miss-focus on Hussein under Bush 43] then back to Afghanistan under Obama. But McChrystal had his hands and the hands [and lives] of his men tied behind his and their backs on his second tour to Afghanistan. Stan spoke out unseemly and was thrown under the bus for speaking the truth.
Let's take a minute to thank Stanley McChrystal for his contributions to this mess. If John McCain knew how to catch bin Laden, he surely kept that method a secret. The true secret was that CIA coordinated intelligence gathering organization, Navy SEAL team 6 and the 160 Airborn Helicopter Battalion. Too bad McCain was unwilling to share with us his secrets! Thank goodness for the doctrine of counter-terrorism pioneered by Stan.
Accuracy posted at 8:21 am on Fri, May 6, 2011.
President Barack Obama – who loudly opposed the enhanced interrogation of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and the interrogators use of "waterboarding" on the most notorious detainees, to coax information from them – is now graciously accepting the admiration (for that information obtained) and praise for the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. Navy SEALs.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 8:44 am on Fri, May 6, 2011.
Did someone in Mesa "lift a rock" or something....all of a sudden it's like someone turned on the kitchen light and all of these Democrats are scurring around writting "letters to the Editor" ....blaming Bush for not doing enough....and the Republicans for doing .........."too much".
What is it Democrats..........can't make up your mind....too many mixed signals for Washington, D.C. ???
Joe "bite me" Biden playing ........."bad cop".
"Born Again" Obama playing ......."good cop".
The poor Democrat ....."sheeples"......striking out at everything that even looks....."like an Elephant"............[wink]
VofReason posted at 1:54 pm on Fri, May 6, 2011.
Right. While Bush was trying to help his buddies get rich from Iraqi oil, he completely forgot about Bin Laden. I mean how in the world could the Military, CIA and all rest concentrate on catching the guy they knew had done 9/11 while Bush was confusing them in Iraq. It is probably because Bush and Cheney were having them all plot the next demolition of tall building in the US that they couldn't get to the work at hand. No no, thank goodness we got the close Gitmo and end Patriot act guy in to pull it all through. Right.
Dale Whiting posted at 2:21 pm on Fri, May 6, 2011.
VofReason,
Maybe all of this "close Getmo" and anti-water boarding was a faint by Obama to get bin Laden to drop his guard? No, his guard was down as early as 2006 when he first moved to Abbottabad! Reflecting on what Bush 43 was doing in Afghanistan, not Pakistan, and what he was doing in Iraq was all that it took to get bin Laden to move to the suburbs of Abbottabad! Wonder if he had plans for a swimming pool on this drawing board?