Osama bin Forgotten

On the eve of another September 11th anniversary Osama bin Laden is still breathing, and breathing free air. The architect of the terror attacks in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania has not been caught because he hasn't been a priority for George W. Bush. Now his trail has gone cold as he has adapted his tactics to avoid detection. According to The Washington Post intelligence lost all track of him two years ago. Gee, there goes the specious argument that exposing the illegal domestic wiretapping programs would tip off Osama.

One thing about bin Laden is certain: the man isn't a fool. He learned early on we could track his movements, finances, location and communications unless he adapted. he adapted. We had our opportunity to capture or kill him at Tora Bora. Because George Bush was afraid to risk American lives at the time he depended on local warlords as our mercenaries. There's one major flaw with using mercenaries: they're for sale to the highest bidder, especially the Afghan type. We never knew if our warlords and mercenaries had been bought off by the enemy. Sometimes they were.

Aside from a handful of special forces soldiers we were depending on these warlords at Tora Bora. We failed to cut off Osama's line of retreat and he escaped. The butcher of September 11th got away because of bad planning and execution. Incompetence. This has been the theme of everything Bush has ever done: incompetence and failure. So, on this fifth anniversary of 9/11 Osama remains a free man.

Instead of concentrating on tracking, finding, and bringing to justice those responsible for the terror attacks we let them get away. Then we transferred the military and intelligence assets from Afghanistan to Iraq. We stopped going after the real terrorists and went after the faux terrorists. Why? Because there isn't any oil in Afghanistan. Iraq was the real prize of the war on terror according to those involved with a group called the Project For a New American Century.

PNAC developed a plan for asserting American power as the only remaining superpower. Their rationale: what use is unrestricted power if you aren't prepared to use it to take what you want? They wrote papers outlining how to invade and take Iraq, Iran and Syria. These were written long before Osama even dreamed of attacking the World Trade Center. The members of PNAC were already in power when 9/11 came along however. Then they lied to America a to justify their desired war. Who is PNAC?

Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Bill Kristol, Douglas Feith, and the other major players behind the invasion of Iraq. They saw 9/11 as their opportunity. While ground zero was still smoldering they were discussing how to use the horror to invade Iraq although Iraq hadn't committed the acts. And so they did.

Fourteen of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, none were from Iraq.

Financing for the attacks came from Saudi Arabia, some directly from the royal family. None of the funds came from Iraq.

None of the hijackers had any contacts with Saddam or the Iraqi government. No, Atta never had that meeting, stop believing propaganda. That story has been completely debunked folks.

Afghanistan's Taliban government allowed Al Qaeda and Osama into their country and allowed them to do whatever they pleased. They supported them and their terrorism.

Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan were the states responsible for these attacks. We have allowed the Taliban to survive and to resurge to the level that intense fighting has now erupted with their forces. This happened because we took our eyes off the ball. We left Afghanistan before the mission there was accomplished. We did so because we wanted to invade Iraq. As a result Osama is still alive and still plotting attacks against us. The Taliban is resurgent, controls a sizable section of the country, warlords control the remainder, heroin is causing terrorism on our streets due to our failures, and we are at more risk than before.

Our entire policy in the war on terror has been a failure. We are not safer. We've done next to nothing to effectively defend ourselves at home. Bush's offense only doctrine has left us vulnerable and its failures abroad are only manufacturing more terrorists. His policies are only creating more people who hate America. When the next inevitable attack happens don't go around bemoaning "why do they hate us? They hate us because of George W. Bush and the people who have supported him.

Why did September 11th happen? That's a complex question. Our foreign policy over decades is somewhat responsible. The world sees us as greedy and selfish. We're unwilling to share our vast wealth via foreign aid, we plunder their natural resources, we're the primary generator for greenhouse gases, etc. We created the monster Osama by not understanding and respecting other cultures. We weren't prepared to defend oursleves as our complete inability to defend either New York or Washington illustrated, and we ignored the warnings.

Let's remember those who died and rededicate ourselves to bringing those responsible to justice. Let's rededicate our foreign policy to real threats and stop creating more terrorists. Let's begin sowing the seeds of peace and understanding, create real opportunities for the downtrodden and relentless poor people who resent us. Sowing the seeds of peace and understanding is far cheaper than reaping the results of war and destruction.