And Kerry flip-flops?

[gridlore]

Sept. 13 and 16, 2001 FLIP

"There's an old poster out West that says, "Wanted: Dead or Alive." . . . The most important thing is to find Osama bin Laden. It's our Number One priority. We will not rest until we have found him." - George W. Bush

Sept. 25, 2001
“we will smoke them out of their caves” - George W. Bush

March 13, 2002 FLOP

"I truly am not that concerned about him."

"Who knows if he's hiding in some cave or not; we haven't heard from him in a long time."
- George W. Bush

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Well, we got Saddm Hussein, who has never directed a terrorist attack on the US. Se, we're safe because we go after targets that aren't a threat to us, in order to intimidate the ones who are. Like how schoolyard bullies go after the smallest, most unpopular target target they can find. That was the thing about Iraq. They were no threat, and everyone hated them. Osama Bin Ladin was a threat, and he has lots of allies. We wanted to intimidate the allies. So we invaded Iraq, with the implicit "you're next if you don't do what we say" message to all of it's neighbors.

There's no understanding of Middle eastern power politics, or the feeling of the average "man on the street" involved in that tactic. It all comes from Washington power politicking, where it works, so long as your opponents are politicians for whom "surrender" means a vote, not a US military presence in your neighbor's country or your country. It fails totally in areas where people can actually be convinced that martyrs are descending from heaven and destroying US tanks with holy weapons. And enough of the people in Iraq actually do think that way, or can be convinced.

[angeleyes8410.livejournal.com]

I love when people point out Bush's stupidity ... I swear you are my perfect man :)

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Ask kshandra about leasing opportunities!

[angeleyes8410.livejournal.com]

That is the most adorable icon EVER!

[fangorn.livejournal.com]

Hey Doug, if you wanted to be _absolutely_ certain to kill or capture Worldwide Enemy Number One, would you apply enormous quantities of high explosive to the vast network of caves he was rumoured to be sheltering in?

Even if you sealed up every single cave, how would you know (with even minimal assurance) that he was dead, without excavating every single cave until you found a body you could identify as his?

I would argue that an extensive bombardment of that type shows that the United States government was not serious about capturing Bin Laden, at least not then and there.

And I think they're a bunch of hypocritical lying-ass fucks.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Or that they realized that hunting one man in the expanse of Afghanistan was going to take an effort that would make Vietnam look like a trip to the NTC. Tens of thousands of troops, hundreds of bases, near constant sweeps of the border.

Not very good television, endless shots of tired troops getting out of the Blackhawks empty-handed.

So they gave us a show with a trumped up plot.

[sossity.livejournal.com]

bush could ask his buddy, the saudi prince, where his cousin was holing up. then bush could send a fedex box to him with acceptible quantities of dangerous goods. once it gets through customs, we would deliver it right to the cave, or villa, or chateau, or chicken coop indicated on the air waybill.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Shrub (a small Bush) has some intel to the effect of "He's probably dead, no message traffic for months, but hedge your bets, he's a crafty bastard."

Naah. This is giving Bush too much credit.

[10binary-cats.livejournal.com]

On the other hand...Bush might know that Bin-Laden has Fox/CNN/Whatever wherever he is and is taunting him.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Sorry, still suffering from Outrage Fatigue.