Okay, I am about to lose my goddamn mind. Now, criticism that Bush wasn’t REALLY interested in capturing bin Laden is old news. He let the guy go at Tora Bora, etc. But that was just a mistake, right?
Enter a new report that Bush let Osama go in Afghanistan to focus on the upcoming Iraq War. Pay close attention.
On the videotape obtained by the CIA, bin Laden is seen confidently instructing his party how to dig holes in the ground to lie in undetected at night. A bomb dropped by a U.S. aircraft can be seen exploding in the distance. “We were there last night,” bin Laden says without much concern in his voice. He was in or headed toward Pakistan, counterterrorism officials think.
That was December 2001. Only two months later, Bush decided to pull out most of the special operations troops and their CIA counterparts in the paramilitary division that were leading the hunt for bin Laden in Afghanistan to prepare for war in Iraq, said Flynt L. Leverett, then an expert on the Middle East at the National Security Council.
Now, let’s think…
The most obvious problem is that nary five months after September 11, Bush called off the search for Osama bin Laden when he was close enough fo the battle-ground to see the explosions. He was THERE, we were THERE, and yet… the hunt was called off. As a result, bin Laden got away.
However, that’s the secondary point. According to this, in February of 2002 Bush pulled the troops and operatives out of Afghanistan in order to focus on the Iraq War. The problem? The Iraq invasion wasn’t until March of 2003. We are looking at preparations for the Iraq war a full thirteen months before the war itself happened.
Five months after 9/11 and thirteen months before the Iraq invasion, Bush was already scrapping the war against al Qaeda to start moving his way into Iraq. And before you ask, the resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq wasn’t until October of 2002. A full 8 months before he was given the authorization to invade Iraq, he was already gathering up the forces.
Make no mistake, Bush had no interest in doing anything to bin Laden. And its effect on the War on Terror?
“I was appalled when I learned about it,” [Leverett] said. “I don’t know of anyone who thought it was a good idea. It’s very likely that bin Laden would be dead or in American custody if we hadn’t done that.”
And there you have it. Because Bush wanted to invade Iraq, because he decided only five months after 9/11 that bin Laden wasn’t important enough and he needed to get ready for Iraq, the man responsible for killing 3,000 innocent American civilians is alive and well in Pakistan. That is our timeline.
- August 2001: Bush gets a memo that bin Laden wants to strike in the US
- September 2001: bin Laden strikes in the US
- October 2001: Invasion of Afghanistan
- February 2002: Resources pulled away from getting bin Laden to get ready for Iraq
- October 2002: Bill is passed to allow the Iraq War
- March 2003: Invasion of Iraq
Bush’s Iraq War has done nothing but damage the war on Terrorism. He has done nothing to capture bin Laden. He was single-mindedly focused on invading Iraq from the beginning. If this isn’t enough to get him burned at the stake, I’m not sure what else we’re waiting for.
[tags]terrorism, war, iraq, afghanistan, bush, bin laden, cia, politics[/tags]
