That just ain't good enough. OBL is the worst threat to western civilization since Hitler. Therefore, your mealy mouth response to my post in an effort to cover up the shortcomings of the current administration is inappropriate and ridiculous. The goal is to get him, and not simply to try and get him. Trying just ain't good enough.
OBL is dangerous but the movement is dangerous even without him. And a smart determined person with the right contacts can elude pursuit for decades. You set the bar to high and then complain that we don't jump over it. There is a good chance that a Gore, or Clinton, or Bush Sr, or Reagan, or Carter administration might not have gotten OBL. Carter might not have even made a serious effort. Clinton had a chance and didn't take it. If we get lucky we will get him. If not we just get as many Al-Qaida as we can.
Again, OBL is synonymous with Al Qaeda. Therefore I use the terms interchangeably. Having said that, I would have been happy had we caught more of Al Qaeda's upper mgmt even if OBL had gotten away.
No one knew back in '98 just how dangerous bin Laden was.
By the end of 98 he had been connected to the first world trade center attack, attacks on our soldiers in Somalia, an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, bombing in Riyadh which killed Americans, the truck bombing of U.S. compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen, and the bombing of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224.
By the time Clinton left office he had also been connected with planned bombings in Los Angeles, the suicide bombing of USS Cole in Yemen which killed 17 US sailors.
You're connecting the dots now. Back then, many of those dots were not connected and for some of the events you cite, its still not clear who was involved, let alone Al Qaeda. For an example, the assassination attempt on Mubarak is thought to have been prompted by the dictator in Sudan, and not Al Qaeda. See the link below. I am unclear what is your source is but it looks to me like some assumptions have been made regarding these events that may not be correct.
us-israel.org
Besides, for many people, including myself, the first we heard the words, Al Qaeda, was on 9/11. Before that, they were thought to be one of many extremist groups in the world. From everything I've heard and read, there were few who understood the extent of their capabilities and the scope of their operations until 9/11.
ted |
