US forces let bin Laden “slip away” again…?!

Throughout the 2004 presidential campaign, Senator John Kerry tried his damnedest to expose the fallacy of President Bush’s war-on-terror by repeatedly citing a CIA field commander’s claim that, in December 2001, US forces had Osama bin Laden cornered in a cave in the mountains of Tora Bora, Afghanistan (and even had him in their sights), but “let him slip away”.

In fact, Kerry, a decorated war veteran, politicized the commander’s claim by charging that Bush outsourced the task of capturing bin Laden to a rag-tag band of Afghan soldiers instead of sending in US special forces to do the job. (And frankly, I thought this line alone should have dealt Bush’s campaign a knockout blow….)

Meanwhile, international media outlets have been replete in recent months with stories about resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan. Therefore, I suppose it should not have come as a surprise that bin Laden would return to safer haven there (in the same caves of Tora Bora) instead of living the life of a bulls-eye nomad in the mountains of Pakistan.

What is surprising, however, is that – according to a report on NBC News last night – just weeks ago, US forces had bin Laden in their sights again, and let him slip away…again! Only this time, no one can blame brave, but inept, Afghans soldiers; since he reportedly got away because brave, but inept, US forces thought they could choke off 10,000 escape routes from the mountains with only 1000 men.