The U.S. has been after Usama Bin Laden since 1987, but we can’t get him. Officials from Homeland Security make a lot of excuses. They say that Bin Laden is crafty, clever, and evasive. Others say that he’s wiser than us, and history tells us that this must be the case. After 23 years, we can’t track down a guy wandering around through caves and wilderness with a $25 million bounty on his head.
Homeland Security complains of the difficult terrain, and that Bin Laden is playing on his home field. Well, the real reason for our failure seems to be that we are incompetent. We’ve blundered many opportunities to kill him. On one occasion, we refused to fire on the house where we knew he was, because we might have damaged a nearby mosque. We’re more concerned with what others think of us than we are with defeating our enemies and keeping us safe.
We don’t even know if Bin Laden is dead or alive. Our officials just keep complaining that it’s a very difficult task. They can’t even decisively conclude whether or not his audio and video takes are authentic. In fact, our best information comes from Bin Laden himself, when he decides to make himself known to us by taunting us with these tapes. If this weren’t such a serious issue, it would be laughable. And, I’m sure that Bin Laden is indeed laughing at us. What happened to our sophisticated intelligence?
Bin Laden has been on the FBI Most Wanted list since 1998, but the CIA can’t find him. President Bush said that if Bin Laden thinks he can hide from us, then he’s sorely mistaken. Well, it appears that he can indeed hide, and President Bush is sorely mistaken. Along with Presidents Clinton and Obama, Bin Laden can now declare victory over three U.S. presidents. What ever happened to our being a world super power–one to be reckoned with?