I'm embarrassed that I don't know the answer to this question, but....

[Fleshdancer]

In last night's debate, Sen. Kerry made the statement that Bush outsourced the battle in Tora Bora. Bush never responded to this and embarrassingly enough, I have no idea what Kerry is talking about.

Could someone here fill me in on the details? Pretty please?

[demnan]

1. Afghans who were the enemy the week before

were tasked to find Osama.

[hippiechick]

2. When the US forces had OBL located in Tora Bora...

they pulled back and let Afghani forces - who recently had been leaning toward the other team - go after him.

Essentially, Bush gave the job to someone else, who mucked it up.

[displacedtexan]

11. Actually, I think BushCo didn't want to capture OBL too soon.

I think Tora Bora was deliberate.

Would BushCo have been able to go ahead with Iraq invasion plans if OBL had been neutralized so soon?

[hippiechick]

13. They didn't want to capture him at all...

Why continue the War on Terra once you've caught the Boogeyman ?



:hippie:

[gWbush is Mabus]

3. we gave the job of finding Osama to

Afghan warlords who we previously did not support and who actually hate each other

[tjwash]

4. Tora Bora was where Bin Laden escaped.

Here is a WP story on it.

By outsourced, he means that they used local warlords, and their people to engage offenses instead of US troops.

[Ramsey]

5. Let others do it

Kerry was talking about the fact when we might have captured Osama bin Laden or other al Queda higher ups during the battle at Tora Bora, Bush relied too heavily on Pakistani and Afghan fighters, who are of course much less interested in actually capturing bin Laden or dismantling the terrorist networks. Kerry is making the point that Bush didn't plan for either Afghanistan or Iraq properly, failing to provide enough troops to get the job done and relying to heavily on unreliable allies.

[Fleshdancer]

12. What an ass!

First, thanks to you (and everyone else) for answering my question. Kerry using the word "outsource" was sheer genius by the way.

I wonder if Bush relied heavily on Afghan fighters to minimize American casualties. If so, this would mean that someone in the WH was more concerned with the political consequences of Tora Bora, right? Granted, I understand wanting to use Afghans to help (it's their land and they know it better than we do) but to rely so heavily on them doesn't make sense to me. Would our Generals recommend doing that?

[TomClash]

6. Bush blew it

Outsourced was a play on words. The US used Afghan tribes in Tora Bora instead of US special forces - the warlords of some of these tribes were largely aiding the Taliban just a few weeks earlier, so they were unreliable. Kerry is saying that wee would have had a much better chance of catching bin Laden if trained US special forces had been used.

[FatSlob]

10. A very clever play on words. I was proud of JK!

[Fleshdancer]

15. I agree, using the word "outsource" was pure genius n/t

[GainesT1958]

7. We "subbed" that job to local Afghan warlords and their forces...

Many of whom had been allied with the Taliban fighting AGAINST us only two weeks before. Kerry's point was, of course, that we should have done it ourselves.

I particularly liked Kerry's rejoinder "and he outsourced THAT, too!". :D

B-)

[Eugene]

8. Bush relied on Afghan militias to trap fleeing Al Queda forces

rather than risking American soldiers' lives.
Bin Laden and most of AQ escaped.

[TomClash]

9. don't be embarrassed

everybody can't know everything

[Fleshdancer]

14. I had a family member in Afghanistan at the time so I thought

I was up to date on the whole Afghanistan War. That's why I was embarrassed. (and damn it! I want to know everything! ha ha) He's back in Afghanistan now so in order for me to get any news, I have to subscribe to Google news alerts...they email me everytime there's a news story about what's going on in Afghanistan since the network news channels are completely ignoring that war. :grr:

[BarbaRosa]

16. That's the beauty of DU

collectively we know everything.

[Fleshdancer]

17. Very true.

And the question doesn't even have to be political in nature. I could ask a question about nuclear fusion and I'm confident someone would clue me in. :)

[MrBenchley]

18. MSNBC called the resulting debacle the "Airlift of Evil"

http://www.msnbc.com/news/664935.asp

"Intelligence officials have assembled what they believe to be decisive evidence, from contemporary and subsequent interrogations and intercepted communications, that bin Laden began the battle of Tora Bora inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border. Though there remains a remote chance that he died there, the intelligence community is persuaded that bin Laden slipped away in the first 10 days of December.
After-action reviews, conducted privately inside and outside the military chain of command, describe the episode as a significant defeat for the United States. A common view among those interviewed outside the U.S. Central Command is that Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the war's operational commander, misjudged the interests of putative Afghan allies and let pass the best chance to capture or kill al Qaeda's leader. Without professing second thoughts about Tora Bora, Franks has changed his approach fundamentally in subsequent battles, using Americans on the ground as first-line combat units.
In the fight for Tora Bora, corrupt local militias did not live up to promises to seal off the mountain redoubt, and some colluded in the escape of fleeing al Qaeda fighters. Franks did not perceive the setbacks soon enough, some officials said, because he ran the war from Tampa with no commander on the scene above the rank of lieutenant colonel. The first Americans did not arrive until three days into the fighting. "No one had the big picture," one defense official said. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62618-2002Apr16?language=printer

You might recall how an angry pResident Blinky called Rumsfeld and Franks on the carpet and fired them on the spo-sorry, I can't even type that with a straight face.