News outlets are reporting that a spring offensive against Taliban and al-Qaeda holdouts is in the works to try to capture or kill Osama bin Laden who is believed to be hiding somewhere along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Here's what the AP-USA Today says:
Since last month's capture of Saddam Hussein, American commanders in Afghanistan have expressed new optimism about finding bin Laden. Hilferty said the military — the United States has 11,000 men in the country — now believes it could seize him within months."We have a variety of intelligence and we're sure we're going to catch Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar this year," [U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan] Hilferty said. "We've learned lessons from Iraq and we're getting improved intelligence from the Afghan people."
Hilferty declined to comment on where he believed bin Laden or Mullah Omar, the former Taliban leader, might be hiding.
Earlier this week, the American commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David Barno, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that he expects bin Laden to be brought to justice by year's end.
Will Pakistan allow U.S. troops into Pakistan if Osama tries to seek sanctuary there?
"We will not allow any foreign troops to conduct any operations in Pakistan," Pakistani army spokesman Gen. Shaukat Sultan said. "Whenever they (the United States) ask for such thing, we always decline."
Well, General Sultan, I certainly hope that you decide to help us and not oppose us. If U.S. troops are in hot pursuit of Osama I don't expect them to back off if they approach the border.
But, isn't the timing interesting? A successful mission certainly would make a nice election day present for the President. Good hunting soldiers!
Ask Turkey about the benefits of stiffing us. Nothing good has happened there, and we'd like to have them as friends.
Posted by: Allen | January 30, 2004 at 03:29 AM
Good point, Allen. It's also instructive to note how well those countries which were defeated by the U.S. in WWII are doing today. Contrasted with Viet Nam, it would seem that the best thing that could happen to a country is lose a war with the U.S.
Posted by: George | January 30, 2004 at 02:24 PM
Unfortunately, I'm one of those who believes UBL could be on any continent in the world, excepting North America, Australia, and Antarctica. There are remote, Jihadi Muslim populations worldwide; some are a majority of the country therein, some a minority. But he very easily could have boarded a freighter a long time ago. The solution is a technique we used in World War II (no, you pacifistic, hateful liberals reading this; it's not nuclear weapons), but I'm obviously not going to post it here for the UBL minyons to read.
Posted by: Tim Roberts | June 06, 2004 at 08:16 PM