Far and away the most telling, and frustrating, part of the dual-fronted war we’re currently involved in is the complete lack of Osama bin Laden throughout it all. Oh sure, he started the thing and every once in a while we get an audio/video tape that the media can have an orgy over, but by and large OBL isn’t really in the picture.
There are any number of reasons why this may be. It could be the official explanation that bin Laden has been neutralized and is no longer a priority, so putting any significant resources on one guy is a waste. It could be the theorized death of Osama that would obviously make it an even bigger waste to put any resources toward finding him. Or it could be that we just don’t really know where he is.
Warning, this article may depress you. What with things like this:
[National security adviser James] Jones described it as “very, very rough, mountainous area. Generally ungoverned and we’re going to have to get after that to make sure that this very, very important symbol of what al-Qaida stands for is either, once again, on the run or captured or killed.”
Since when did “on the run” become an adequate conclusion to the hunt? Are there murder investigations where making sure someone is “on the run” means they’re doing their job? For a guy that orchestrated the murder of a few thousand American citizens, it seems like James Jones is being terribly cavalier about the chase.
He might be in Pakistan, he might be in Afghanistan, he might be alive or he might be dead. Now Pakistan’s getting angry at Washington for starting to aim the guns on their soil. And here’s a potentially frightening possibility: with all of our efforts going into strengthening the Afghani forces, who’s to day the US won’t try and pour them into Pakistan should the Obama administration decide to chase the Taliban over the border?
