It would be all too anticlimactic to have gotten him yet.

December 16, 2001 2:19 PM

It would be all too anticlimactic to have gotten him yet. Now it appears (or is being reported) that OBL was "spirited" away into Iran during a lull in battle when al-Qaeda forces strategically offered to surrender. The bombing momentarily ceases. Wily bin Laden gets away.
posted by crasspastor (13 comments total)

UBL doesn't really exist!

He's an imaginary creation of the CIA, et.al. created solely for the purpose of providing a premise for the takeover of Afghanistan by Big Oil and the Russian Mafia to install a pipeline to warm water ports.

(Well, no more looney than lots of other stuff making the rounds lately).
posted by HTuttle at 2:36 PM on December 16, 2001

I was told by someone who is not an American...

I like this Rumsfeld quote
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 3:24 PM on December 16, 2001

Shouldn't that be Wile E. Bin Laden...SOOOPERevilgenius?
posted by MrBaliHai at 3:32 PM on December 16, 2001

Of course, maybe they got him and don't want to tell anyone until after the military tribunal....

(I don't actually believe that, no.)
posted by mattpfeff at 3:39 PM on December 16, 2001

It's sort of in the United States current interest NOT to catch him in Afghanistan. If UBL "gets away", the US has carte blanche to go bomb the hell out of whoever is next on the list for harboring suspected terrorists. It almost seems like UBL is cooperating with the US so we can justify attacking anyone Bush and Rumsfeld decide to.

So, where to next? Iraq? Iran? Chechnya?

Oh, and so much for hearing UBL giving orders, I'm getting really tired of the constant stream of lies. It's no wonder no one in the Middle East believes the tape is real.
posted by joemaller at 3:44 PM on December 16, 2001

They talk of surrender and we stop bombing. . .

Mercy in the west=virtue
Mercy in the middle east= stupidy/ignorance/vulnerablity

Hopefully the pentagon will learn from its blunders (this time)
posted by BentPenguin at 3:51 PM on December 16, 2001

Right, joemaller, we all have wet dreams about bombing poor, brown people for the hell of it, and we hope for more such opportunities in the near future. Did it ever occur to you that this is a stupid way to look at the world, or perhaps in its own way vile propaganda, not to mention a lie?

Osama being loose means that al Qaeda has a focal point for recruiting and for regrouping, which is in practically any set of values you choose to place on the table a Bad Thing. Nevertheless, Osama is not critical to the success of al Qaeda, and may be even less important, in context, than the state support and safe harbor given to the group by the Taliban. They no longer have training camps; they no longer have a heck of a lot of the people they trained. This is a net loss to the organization. They now must concentrate their energies on hiding, flight, regrouping, and rebuilding, while having suffered a tremendous blow to the morale of all present membership and finanical supporters, and all such energies taken away from actual terrorism are a net benefit for the United States that directly speaks to our primary goal in this war.
posted by dhartung at 11:22 PM on December 16, 2001

dhartung, we may not have "wet dreams about bombing poor brown people" but we do have a good track record of it. In the meantime, the US did have a proposal for military action in Afghanistan before September 11th. Has there ever been conclusive proof that UBL was even in Afghanistan post Sept. 11? We've been told so many lies about what's going on there, why should we believe that he somehow escaped? Why should we believe he was ever there?

What happens if UBL is never found? What if his body was vaporized by one of those huge bombs, but messages from him keep appearing for years and years? People kept seeing Elvis and Kennedy after they died, why should UBL be any different? He is an idea and a tool as much as he is a person and a threat. The US will continue to use the spectre of UBL to point the barrel of our campaign against terrorism.

I apologize if my initial posting was too slanted, but I think it still raises a valid point.
posted by joemaller at 1:04 AM on December 17, 2001

Yes it does joemaller. Very valid points and something even more thick to chew on!
posted by crasspastor at 1:56 AM on December 17, 2001

Yes, joemaller, and in case you've forgotten it, we had good reason to be considering pursuing bin Laden before September 11. Maybe it was the first time YOU noticed, but he's bombed us before. Thanks for keeping up.
posted by dhartung at 8:42 AM on December 17, 2001

Duh. OBL ain't a moron. I mean, would you stand around and have cluster bombs dropped on you when you could flee to Somalia, Iran, Pakistan (or wherever).

What makes me laugh is that the Pentagon was slobbering all over themselves a couple of days ago saying "Yeah, we got Bin Laden. He's holed up in Tora Bora!"

What a load of horseshit.

dhartung, you might be interesting if you weren't so totally clueless. ;)
posted by zeb vance at 10:20 AM on December 17, 2001

Oh, yes, the mastermind of killing 3000 getting away from the hapless US military. That's really, really funny. You should take this material on the road.
posted by dhartung at 4:16 PM on December 17, 2001

"Did it ever occur to you that this is a stupid way to look at the world, or perhaps in its own way vile propaganda, not to mention a lie?"

According to dhartung, any speculation which includes skepticism about the official story is now called "vile propaganda" or even "a lie".

Apparently we prefer credulous gullibility these days.
posted by lagado at 3:40 PM on December 18, 2001