Osama in Pakistan. Pakistan our ally. So we can't go get Osama or what?

[NNN0LHI]

If we take at face value what Bush says. That bin Laden masterminded 9/11 well then he should damn well be caught. Everything I read says he is in Pakistan. And if he is not there, that would be good to know too. I know this area of Pakistan is some rough territory and all, but my take on this is that this person should be brought to justice if he is responsible for 9/11. Does Pakistan have no oil?

Don

[madrchsod]

1. it`s not time yet

have to roll him out just before the convention.

[NashVegas]

2. I Suspect India May Have Something to Do With It

If we go into Pakistan, expect Kashmir to explode, big time.

[maggrwaggr]

4. If OBL really did do 9/11, almost everyone would support us going in

It would have been a no-brainer after 9/11, with the international support that we had, to go to almost any country and say "excuse me, but we have to go into this neighboring country and grab a few of these terrorists."

But we didn't do that. Why? Because they didn't really give a shit about "terrorism", they just wanted an excuse to invade Iraq.

[varun]

11. India was disappointed...

...when US chose Pakistan as the "frontline ally" after 911.

It just doesnt make sense to make an ally of a country that sponsors most of the terrorism happening around the world today.

[maggrwaggr]

3. exactly. When we didn't deal with Pakistan, I started to smell a rat

That's when I first realized the whole 9/11 thing was pretty fishy.

If OBL actually did mastermind 9/11, then we should have gone into both Afghanistan and Pakistan, with however many troops it took, both foreign and domestic, and looked under every rock until we found him.

But we didn't do that. Before we ever got to that point, BFEE started talking about Iraq.

And then their real motivation was shown.

And 9/11 was their excuse.

As O'Neil has finally made glaringly public, Bushco wanted to invade Iraq and was looking for reasons, even if they had to manufacture them.

And boy did they

[dansolo]

5. Don't forget about Tora-Bora

We very likely allowed Osama to escape then into Pakistan. Personally, I think that the ISI is a far greater threat to America than al Qaeda.

[Yupster]

8. Gone into Pakistan?

Are you kidding?

Do you know Pakistan has a population of 140 million people. You think we can occupy Pakistan? It's about ready to explode anyway once Mushareff is assasinated, and you think we should get in the middle of that? Good lord.

[Aidoneus]

6. it would be a catastrophe

Sheikh Ussamah is surrounded by heavily armed beards, who happen to like him a great deal. If the Busharraf puppet regime were to try, it would be the death of him (well, he's marching towards that death already--surviving a couple recent attempts to end his dictatorship and his life at the same time--, it would just be at a quicker pace) and the revolution. Effectively speaking Sheikh Ussamah's death would not mean much in terms of what you may see as "progress", indeed, it would be a great deal in the other direction.

The context of Pakistan within the greater "geopolitics" of the world must be understood. For decades, Pakistan has typically been a US proxy state--a state that exists to execute US policy in the region. Busharraf does that now, indeed, even did so in the 90s when ISI's support of the Islamic Emirate was open and honest (the Islamic Emirate kept Russia & Iran from moving into dominating all of Central Asia, and that was good enough to the US imperialists at the time).

There are many within the Pakistani establishment that are not happy with the abandonment of Afghanistan to Indian/Russian/Iranian interests and the re-subjugation of Pakistan to a US puppet state. While not necessarily in favour of an Islamic state as, say, the Muttahida Majlis e-Amal coalition, they view such forces as a policy as their way of exerting independent Pakistani nationalism, as opposed to merely being a pawn of US imperialism as Busharraf represents. Such people would--and sometimes do--make things somewhat difficult.

[Yupster]

7. Time magazine has done the best reporting on this

The region they think Osama is in is huge.

The Pakistani government has absolutely no control of the region. It is a tribal area which governs itself. We think he's there because when troops are sent into the region, we can see runners going from village to village warning the population.

The fear is that if the Pakistani Army goes into the area, it will start a general Civil War within Pakistan. It is quite a mess.

I imagine there are sniper teams in the area, and that may be the way we finally get him.

For more, read Time magazine the last three months or so. They've done the best work on the topic.

[mindless]

9. Finding Bin laden in those mountains, find a specific grain of sand

on the beach. If someone was dropped into the forest in the nothwest U.S. And they knew how to survive there. They could live out thier life without detection. Given the amount of $$ and new tech devices available now. BL could go for a long time undetected as long as he was(and he is) smart.

And to the ? of if...he has admitted to doing 9/11 and so thats a silly thing to even bring to the table.

[Speed8098]

12. "And to the ? of if...he has admitted to doing 9/11 and so thats a silly "

Silly??

Where is the unrefutable evidence that Bin Laden did this??

Admitted it? Do you mean the tape if the fat Bin Laden, who really wasn't BL?

If 9/11 really happened the way that * said it did, then why have 8 of the 19 identified, turned up alive??

I'm not saying BL wasn't part of it, but to blindly believe what your government tells you, is indeed, mindless as your moniker indicates.

[DoNotRefill]

10. Ummm...

Parts of Pakistan aren't really even under the control of the Pakistani government. I think they call them "tribal areas" or some such thing.

Parts of Pakistan are nice. Parts are hellholes where basically feudalism is still rampant. If Osama is in the tribal areas, there's no chance in hell of getting him out, unless they sell him out, and seeing how rich he is, I doubt that'll happen.

[radwriter0555]

13. OBL has been dead for 2 years. Why would you beleive the bushlers

on this fairy tale?

[NNN0LHI]

14. You know me better than that radwriter0555

The point of this post is if Bush keeps wagging the bin Laden bogeyman when needed, why doesn't he just go get him? I too consider the chance of bin Laden being dead very good. But the CIA keeps saying he is still making tapes. So Bush should put his money where his mouth is. Remember his gonna smoke 'em out crap over 2 years ago?

Don