Tuesday, May 3, 2011

KINDA SORTA WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE

Osama Bin Laden is dead, but in the midst of all the celebrations and congratulations is the bitter knowledge he could have been killed almost ten years ago and thousands of lives spared. America's leaders were more concerned with going to war in Iraq than they were with getting Bin Laden. President Obama called former President Bush to inform him of Bin Laden's death and when he hung up, the former President has to know Obama has cleaned up his mess and accomplished something Bush wasn't particularly interested in finishing.

When American forces invaded Afghanistan in 2002, they quickly chased the Taliban out and discovered bin Laden, and his second in command Dr. Zawahiri, along with Taliban leader Mullah Omar, trapped in the mountains of Tora Bora. They were hiding deep in caves from which there was no exit, but which would require a dangerous operation to go in and root them out. It would have resulted in many deaths for those in pursuit of these terrorists. Instead of using American special forces, the ones used to kill Bin Laden in Pakistan, President Bush opted to allow Afghan troops to take the lead. The result was someone was paid off, or possibly sympathetic to Bin Laden and Mullah Omar, and they were allowed to slip away over the border into Pakistan. Had Bin Laden been killed at that time, Al Qaeda would have fallen apart. Its ability to morph into a worldwide brand and to franchise its terror would have been impossible. The ability to recruit new fighters would have been far less successful. Instead, as the CIA reported in 2006 and again in 2008, Al Qaeda was stronger than ever and had reformulated itself into a more widespread operation, more decentralized with Bin Laden still at its center.

At the time of the Tora Bora operation, President Bush and his national security team had already decided to invade Iraq. Resources were already being diverted from Afghanistan to Iraq. One of the few military units which spoke Pashtun in Afghanistan was replaced by a unit which contained foreign language experts, except they were experts in speaking Spanish. Satellite and other electronic surveillance were shifted to the Iraq theater as well as large numbers of intelligence assets. The end result is the initial successes in Afghanistan were lost, Bin Laden et.al. escaped and were able to wreak havoc in Iraq for a number of years as well as in other countries. No one will ever know how many Americans and Iraqis died because Bin Laden was able to continue to operate and coordinate his terror forces.

Some would say this is all sour grapes. We should be celebrating the death of Bin Laden and to bring up the past is just partisan and has no value now. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The obsession which Bush and Cheney had with Iraq resulted in a series of decisions and actions which directly led to the fiasco which Iraq became, caused the lies and propaganda campaign which the Iraq Study Group in the White House conducted to convince the American people to support the invasion, and was the reason for the half-baked effort in Afghanistan. 100,000 American troops are in Afghanistan today, suffering unacceptable levels of casualties, because of the Bush administration abandoning the effort in Afghanistan in favor of the disaster which became Iraq. Trillions of dollars were spent unnecessarily and are still spent to clean up what Bush and company left behind.

The death of Osama Bin Laden is a day to celebrate. He wished to be a martyr and his wish has been granted. His religious fundamentalism, like all religious fundamentalism, had nothing to do with God or Allah but rather with trying to force his version on the Muslim world and he was willing to use violence to accomplish his purpose. He killed innocent people because, in his religious zealotry, no one was innocent who disagreed with him. Fundamentalism is still a grave threat in this world whether it is Islamic or Jewish or Christian. Bin Laden should have died in Tora Bora, but other fanatics, those in the White House, were too obsessed to do their job and protect this nation from a genuine threat.

7 comments:

  1. Thank you Bernie! I was waiting for your word. Meanwhile having to listen to ,some republicans, thanking George Bush for the capture of Bin Laden. Will we ever get beyond the harm done by the entire Bush group? Excellent article! Stay strong!

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  2. I hope Obama uses the bin Laden death to withdraw us from Afghanistan and to highlight the Bush hypocrasy and folly of invading Iraq because of terrorism, which can not be defeated militarily.

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  3. Hi Bernie, I religiously listened to your show and even YOU were more obsessed with getting bin Laden than President Bush was. President Obama has done a fantastic job taking out the bastard who killed 3,000 Americans and more around the world.

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  4. 3000 Americans?
    Do we have any idea how many of the victims were from other countries?
    including many various Muslim countries?

    Do we know or care how many were Israelis?
    Notice if your shackles go up with that last possibility.
    It is a measure of the mind control we are all subject to, that any mention of what the Israeli government or its military MEANS THAT YOU MUST BE _____. Fill in the Blank.

    What?
    They can't do anything wrong
    because they are God's Chosen People?
    Excuse me?

    If you get your news from the TV (Network or cable, makes little difference) then of course you are going to see things the way The Corporate States of America wants you to see them, to maximize their profits and for no one else.
    Please visit www.mindcontrolinamerica.com and meet Steven Jacobson there.
    Then test yourself to learn the level of control in your mind (if any).
    The test is to see if you can sit and watch and listen for 9 minutes and 1 second. If you won't or can't do that, what does it tell you about the belief system that prevent you even from examining evidence of certain events in an objective manner.
    Here then is the one question pre-test: Are you able to watch this video for just nine minutes and one second, or do you invent a reason for quitting it.
    You see, if you will spend the full nine minutes and one second to see this video then no one can accuse you of not having an open mind!
    Seriously, if we can believe in nobody, only in what we see and hear, then will we be able to get it?

    Did anyone here see the movie THE TRUMAN SHOW starring Jim Carrey?
    I am feeling a lot like that character, as he began to get a glimmer here and a clue over there that just, maybe, reality is not exactly what he thought it was before he began to observe critically, thanks to the girl friend who ---
    well ... this not a movie review, but I intend to watch it again and re-learn what can be done to condition someone totally.

    Oh, I almost forgot!
    Here is the link I promised you:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEuJimaumW4

    Watch it to the end or call me a sorry old kook or a sirri irriot, as one of my associates put it ... your choice.
    Maybe that is not true; George Carlin and Advaita both say that we have no choice; we only think we have a choice.
    That is why I learn and teach chess, do we get that? I am about metapolitics and in that concerned to deliver an educational product that works for many or all 'subjects' ... with the help of sound files. Whoever read this far, ask me for samples of chess sound files in my voice.
    Hey lionofthe left, I forgot where I was. I really appreciate you for setting this blog so I canuse it as one of my basis of operation AND automatically keep you informed of what old James of Cloverdale is up to.

    a sirri irriot, as one of my associates put it.

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  5. OBL should have been taken alive if he hadn't resisted...however, if he did indeed resist and threatened to kill one or more of the commandos, then it was self-defense to take him out. President Obama should release the actual footage of the raid.

    That said, you're right Bernie, it's not very Christian for people to gloat and celebrate someone's death, even that of a bigoted terrorist/murderer like OBL.

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  6. It took both to capture binladen - without Bush efforts it could not have been done - Clinton sure failed. And it took Obama's willingness to continue the Bush efforts.

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  7. Yes, because Bush was unwilling to continue the Bush efforts.

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