As we prepare to listen to Obama speak to the nation from West Point on Tuesday night, I think that it is important to remember something that was known years ago: George W. Bush and his minion Don Rumsfeld let Osama bin Laden get away. The war in Afghanistan was justified. We had the world on our side, and our troops were getting it done. Yet, the requests for support to go after bin Laden while he was at Tora Bora, were denied time and again. It's believed that bin Laden escaped in mid-December 2001 into the nether world of northwest Pakistan.
I just finished reading the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report (not including the appendices), and the reading was as fascinating as it was infuriating. The report makes clear that at the time our forces had bin Laden cornered, the "deciders" in this conflict, from Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld to Gen. Franks and Lt. Gen. DeLong either didn't believe the overwhelming evidence that bin Laden was close to being captured or killed, or they were focused on Iraq (which again had nothing to do with 9/11).
What is remarkable to me is that I am sure that people who supported Bush during his presidency (and called anyone who challenged him unpatriotic) will see this report as nothing more than some "liberal" hatchet job designed to embarrass Bush. Hell, some of them still think that Iraq had something to do with 9/11.
Imagine if this was a report about Obama's failing to capture bin Laden.
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