Charlie Wilson: "I think we can catch bin Laden. He's catchable. He is absolutely catchable."

[sabra]

http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/32749

Catching up with the real Charlie Wilson

<snip>

Q: In the book, a strong connection between the Americans and the Afghan fighters is indicated. Then the Soviets leave and it changes. Did you encounter the Taliban? Did they even exist then?

A: No, it was 11 years after the Russians left Afghanistan before anybody had ever heard of them. The Berlin Wall had come down, all that before the Taliban reared its head.

Q: And our mistake was not staying there and helping to rebuild the country after the defeat of the Soviet Union?

A: Absolutely. You would never have heard of the Taliban. The Taliban was a result of the vacuum that we left.

Q: Are we in danger of doing the same thing in Iraq if we pull out?

A: I really don't know. I really believe we should give it a try in Iraq to rebuild the country because, after all, we destroyed it. Unlike Afghanistan, we destroyed Iraq, and I think we are indebted to do everything we can to rebuild it. But I don't think we need to do anything there that requires the presence of 169,000 soldiers. I think we should begin pulling them out.

If we didn't have a big presence in Iraq (of course I was opposed to the Iraq War when it started), we wouldn't have had to take so many of our assets out of Afghanistan, and I think we can catch bin Laden. He's catchable. He is absolutely catchable. But it will take more soldiers than we have there now. Some of the really elite units they took out could be assigned that task, and I believe they'd have good luck.

[acmavm]

1. Hell yeah he's catchable. He's in the White House freezer next

to Sunday's pot roast.

[SOS]

2. Wilson is right in regard to the abandonment of Afghanistan

Bush 41 ignored Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal, leading to anarchy and eventually the Taliban.
The US could spend $3 billion in covert arms to Al Qaeda in the 1980s. As soon as the fighting was over the US abandoned the country.
Typical US foreign policy.
Billions for arms? No problem!
Money for schools and hospitals to create an ally in a volatile region? Get lost!

[Indenturedebtor]

3. How do you line your own pockets paying for schools and hospitals?

That's the problem. What we need to do is privatize schools and hospitals so we can loot the treasury with those. When that happens maybe we'll be more peaceful :crazy:

[Ghost in the Machine]

4. Charlie Wilson is a moron... Osama bin Laden is DEAD.. he's been dead since Dec. 2001

Fox News: "Bin Laden Already Dead"

Wednesday, December 26, 2001

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.

"The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said.

Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41576,00.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Death of bin Ladenism
By AMIR TAHERI
Published: July 11, 2002

Osama bin Laden is dead. The news first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost six months ago: the fugitive died in December and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan. Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, echoed the information. The remnants of Osama's gang, however, have mostly stayed silent, either to keep Osama's ghost alive or because they have no means of communication.

With an ego the size of Mount Everest, Osama bin Laden would not have, could not have, remained silent for so long if he were still alive. He always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with. Would he remain silent for nine months and not trumpet his own survival?

Even if he is still in the world, bin Ladenism has left for good. Mr. bin Laden was the public face of a brand of politics that committed suicide in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, killing thousands of innocent people in the process.

What were the key elements of that politics?

The first was a cynical misinterpretation of Islam that began decades ago with such anti-Western ideologues as Maulana Maudoodi of Pakistan and Sayyid Qutb of Egypt. Although Mr. Maudoodi and Mr. Qutb were not serious thinkers, they could at least offer a coherent ideology based on a narrow reading of Islamic texts. Their ideas about Western barbarism and Muslim revival, distilled down to bin Ladenism, became mere slogans designed to incite zealots to murder.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405EFDE1230F932A25754C0A9649C8B63