SJC: lol! MacB, I pre-emptively apologize, had to throw that in. On a more serious note: None of us who are anti-Bush should play down the capture of OBL. It would be tremendous to bring justice to a mass murderer. It is also important to go for the leadership, both big and small, in all cells all over the world. There definitely will be attempted attacks, successful and unsuccessful, after he is captured/killed. Al Queda will still keep operating- capturing or martyring their leader and hero will only spur them on. Look at Palestine- no matter how many terrorist leaders Israel kills/assassinates/executes, the organizations keep on going. Hate always brings more people to the cause. The absolute number one solution to the "war on terror" is peace in Israel/Palestine. Period. Go to the source of the hate. Creating more hate will just create more enemies. But pursuing and punishing wrongdoers is also very important.
Bush supporters and supporters of the Iraqi invasion who aren't Bush supporters (see HayesStreet, for example) love to make the claim that invading Iraq gave us the collateral benefit of sucking in "all" the al-Qaida terrorists and their ilk so we could defeat them in Iraq instead of having them run around blowing things up, maybe in this country. Here's an article which highlights how the Iraqi War pulled resources away from the hunt for bin Laden and al-Qaida in other parts of the world... like Afghanistan and tribal regions of Pakistan. CIA in Baghdad balloons to agency's biggest mission Dana Priest, Washington Post Thursday, March 4, 2004 Washington -- The CIA has rushed to Iraq four times more clandestine officers than it had originally planned on, but has had little success penetrating the resistance and identifying foreign terrorists involved in the insurgency, according to senior intelligence officials and intelligence experts recently briefed on Iraq. The CIA mission in Iraq, which was originally slated to have 85 officers, has grown to more than 300 full-time case officers and close to 500 personnel in total, including contractors and people on temporary assignments. It is widely known among agency officials to be the largest station in the world, and the biggest since Saigon during the Vietnam war 30 years ago. Despite its size, the agency's efforts to penetrate Iraq's ethnic factions and to gain intelligence about the insurgency have been hampered by the continued violence, the use of temporary and short-term personnel, and by the pressing demands of military commanders for tactical intelligence they can use in daily confrontations with guerrillas. In December, the CIA station chief was replaced with a more experienced officer to handle the unexpected challenges, according to intelligence officials. The CIA's role in Iraq is considered crucial to the administration's hopes for stabilizing the country as it heads toward a June 30 deadline for handing sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government. U.S. forces are counting on intelligence agents to help identify the leaders and networks behind the flaring insurgency. With the war on terrorism spread over five continents, and the hunt for Osama bin Laden intensifying as spring approaches, the agency "is stretched beyond (its) limits," even as it makes a historic drive for new recruits, said one senior CIA veteran. The violence itself is making it far more difficult for the CIA to operate. A CIA directive requires case officers to travel only with armed bodyguards, making it nearly impossible to conduct discreet meetings with Iraqis on their own turf, according to intelligence experts briefed on the Iraq mission. The agency operates from more than a half dozen bases around the country. "How do you do your job that way? You can't," said one former CIA official recently returned from Iraq. "They don't know what's going on out there." The agency is training a private security firm that employs former special forces troops to be less conspicuous when they accompany CIA officers. As an extra safeguard, and because of a shortage of CIA paramilitary personnel, the agency also has hired private security firms to protect its bases and personnel. "We don't have enough people with skills required," said one senior intelligence official. To meet the demand for additional personnel, the CIA has turned to its corps of reserves -- retirees who are willing to come back full-time on short notice -- to fill many positions. To coax more people into the dangerous assignment, many officers and support staff are being rotated out of Iraq after 90-day stints. Some Iraqi regional leaders have complained to American officials of being frustrated they are unable to find or meet with CIA liaison officers. "Some (Iraqi leaders) say they don't have effective liaison relations," said another former senior official who has dealings in Iraq. "Just when he's getting to know people, they leave. That's a huge potential problem." http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/03/04/MNGAH5DTKA1.DTL
