Have you seen Osama bin Laden? Neither have I. More importantly, neither has anyone trying to find him.
After pondering what the federal government and the military are doing to find the leader of al-Qaeda and the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, I figured it out – they’ve been alerting the public.
Once a week, Attorney General John Ashcroft or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are on the nightly news warning the American public to watch out for “suspected terrorists” and “suspicious people.”
Instead of going out to find the bad guys, these guys are telling us to do it. That and complaining about nude sculptures that sit in the briefing room at the Department of Justice.
I’m sorry, but between trying to make it to class, my job and sleeping, finding those pesky suspected terrorists is about as important as finding a new girlfriend.
Funny enough, the Weekly World News found bin Laden sunbathing on the Gold Coast of Australia. It seems that despite his rigid Islam beliefs, bin Laden is in desperate need of a tan.
All that hiding out in caves can make a terrorist pale.
Meanwhile, in the so-called believable media, newscasters behind their desks and reporters in the field report that either Osama is dead or Osama is alive.
The least we can do is be a bit consistent. If the upper echelons of military intelligence can’t find them, say so. I doubt anyone is going to get upset at the fact we can’t find him as long as he’s not here in our backyard.
Which brings me to the crux of this column: Are we going to ever get bin Laden?
Go back to the early ’90s, travel to a not-so-distant place from Afghanistan – Iraq.
Remember Saddam? The baron of evil? The Hitler of the modern world? Anything up there?
Saddam Hussein, the then, and still, leader of Iraq was on the losing end of a conflict with the United States.
In Operation Desert Storm, the United States left the Iraqi army depleted, but stopped short of capturing Hussein.
Whose decision was this?
Since Desert Storm, every year or so, the United States has to bomb or blow up something over Iraq to keep it in line.
Wouldn’t it have made sense to get the guy and allow that country to go back to a normal way of life.
Hindsight is 20/20. We’ve learned plenty from that time. In Afghanistan we herded up and sent those Tablian fighters and leaders to Cuba.
Smart move, because they wouldn’t have received a warm welcome here.
Yet, no Osama.
One can only wonder what havoc this guy can wreak on Americans, at home and abroad.
Let’s get this guy. If he’s hiding out in Pakistan, let’s get him. If’s he’s in Saudi Arabia, we can go and find him.
Simply put, eliminating terrorism, even to me, is a far-fetched goal. But let’s start in a place that could prevent the loss of a lot of innocent lives.
Focusing our efforts on Osama is already happening. Giving up now is the wrong thing to do.
Leaving no stone unturned, the U.S. intelligence community and military need to be swift in finding bin Laden before another attack returns to American soil.