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Bush drags feet in the Hunt for Osama bin Laden

Uploaded by: AntiConformist911
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The Hunt for Osama bin Laden
On April 30, 1945, as Soviet troops closed in on central Berlin, Adolf Hitler bid farewell to the aides gathered in his bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery and killed himself with a bullet to the head. Many Americans grew up with a vision of war as something that ends with that kind of finality. Since then we have become acquainted with more inconclusive finales. As America searches for Osama bin Laden in the mountainous wilderness of eastern Afghanistan, we are learning that even in victory, finding the end point can be frustratingly elusive.
President Bush has been clear-headed about this possibility. Since Sept. 11 he has often said that the fight against terrorism will be difficult and prolonged. Yet no amount of presidential speechmaking can really prepare Americans for the possibility that the fate of Osama bin Laden may remain unclear for some time. The uncertainty seems especially maddening just days after everyone saw the videotape of the terrorist leader chuckling over the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
He could turn up, dead or alive, at any time -- or not at all. He may be hiding in the inhospitable, snow-capped high country above Tora Bora, the last redoubt of the Qaeda network in Afghanistan. He could be entombed in one of the area's many caverns, if an American bomb happened to hit the right cave during the heavy bombardment of recent days. Or he may have slipped away days ago and melted into the desolate region along the Pakistani border.
The war in Afghanistan, not to mention the war against terrorism, will never seem complete without the capture or confirmed death of Osama bin Laden and his two top surviving deputies, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Zubaydah. The terrorist Al Qaeda organization, with cells in dozens of countries, is likely to outlive them, but it will be much weaker once its leaders are gone. It would also be reassuring if American or Afghan forces could find Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader who fled into the hills just before the surrender of Kandahar this month.
Still, the Taliban have been evicted from power in Afghanistan more swiftly and with fewer American and Afghan casualties than anyone dared hope back in the bleakest days of September. The United States and its allies have promised to help rebuild Afghanistan and give it a chance to establish a democratic government. These advances will not come easily in a land accustomed to lawlessness, but the first steps seem promising.
At least for the moment, the bin Laden network has been badly disrupted. Its leaders are on the run, many of its financial lifelines have been severed and security measures in countries around the world have been enhanced to prevent new attacks and to identify and prosecute terrorists. Without Afghanistan as a base, Al Qaeda will find it harder to marshal and train its forces and send them abroad on new missions.
Where Mr. Bush plans to take the war after Afghanistan is unclear. There is talk of going after terrorists in Somalia, Indonesia and the Philippines, and a lot of rumbling in Washington about unseating Saddam Hussein in Iraq. These options require much more careful consideration, and national debate before Mr. Bush makes any decisions. Right now, a great deal of military and political work remains to be done in Afghanistan. And the hunt for Osama bin Laden must go on. That phase of the war on terrorism may yet have a clear resolution.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02EEDE143EF93BA25751C1A9679C8B63

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