The Next Bin Laden Tape - 9/11 Anniversary

I expect Osama Bin Laden to release another tape tomorrow on the anniversary of 9/11. Why? Well, it’s a perfect time to deliver another rant. Though his last tape seems to be more of a political diatribe, I think we might be missing the point. The main point of the tape is that he is still alive! We have failed utterly to find or defeat him. Though he may be holed up somewhere in northern Pakistan, he is still working and capable of communicating with his followers worldwide. Why is he still at large 6 years after the attack he masterminded?

The answer is clearly that the Bush administration in its War on Terror has been tilting at windmills rather than finding the real villain. Iraq was a distraction designed to garner oil and revenue for big American companies. So what if it killed thousands of American troops, hey, it’s business! Afghanistan is a mess, since we left it before the job of rebuilding the nation was finished. Pakistan is on the verge of collapse, with a military dictator who became our “ally of convenience”, and the Taliban is making a comeback in the tribal areas of both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It is a very poor tribute to the men and women who died on September 11 to find ourselves watching another tape by Bin Laden. I pray that there will be no more attacks, but I know that may not be the case. We have geared up to fight a big war, but the inconvenient truth is that this will be a little war that can easily walk into our country and take innocent American lives. That may be a reality we have to live with. Meanwhile, why not spend some of that inconceivably large defense budget on actually finding Bin Laden and pitting him behind bars. It might not make any money for Halliburton or the Carlisle Group, but it would help lots of American’s sleep better at night.