What if bin Laden is found?

[Arkana]

I don't want to sound like an alarmist or suggest that finding bin Laden would be a bad thing, but what if we find him? It would all but assure Dubya four more years in the White House.

[Turbineguy]

1. Not really

it begins to look like a campaign stunt when you wait this long. The Spaniards have been rolling up people from last weeks' bombing.

[dennis4868]

2. I think....

it would Bush back in the WH for 4 more years :-(

Even though catching OBL would not help much in the fight against terrorism, the perception will be, with the help from the media, that Bush has won the war on terror. It would take away Kerry's argument that Bush is not stong in fighting terror.

[Arkana]

6. that's it

That's exactly what I'm worried about--it'll turn into another Paul Bremer "We got him!"

All capturing Osama will do is make him a martyr and make al-Qaeda even angrier, but the media will slant it so that the war on terror is over because Osama was caught.

[Imalittleteapot]

3. Finding bin Laden will be a good thing.

It will not ensure Dubya's re-election, even if he personally finds the terrorist. By election day the voters will have heard from Kerry over and over and over again why we should vote Bush out. I'm not concerned.

[lastknowngood]

4. Bush's trifecta for 2004

capture OBL
find planted WMD's in Iraq
withdraw a token force from Iraq and declare victory.

That is how it will go you can depend on it.

[DinahMoeHum]

5. Simple. All we have to say is: why did * distract us with Iraq??

We could have had OBL a year to 18 months earlier if that Texas Turd hadn't lied and distracted us with Iraq. Maybe 600 of our troops and 200 Spaniards would still be alive, for starters.

Capture of OBL would become a verrrrrry Pyhrric victory for him, And it won't save his "Presidency", no matter what. We are still in a quagmire in Iraq, and there are too many people without jobs.


:kick:

[IronLionZion]

12. exactly

Bush fucked up royally and people need to understand that.

[priller]

7. No, not assured at all

Remember, the poll "bounce" Dubya got from Saddam's capture was over in about 2 or 3 weeks.

If they do it too soon to the elections, then it will look suspiciously like a campaign stunt. OTOH, this the "October Surprise" people we're talking about, so I'm sure they planning on doing something like this.

[SoundWave]

8. ...

Politics aside...I think the sooner we kill him (I don't want him tried, just dead), the better. Find him, launch some rockets, recover the body and release a video of his body being coated with pig's blood with a message to all would be terrorist that they will suffer the same fate.
Let them know that the bodies of suicide bombers will get the same treatment.

[Bridget Burke]

10. Yes, a trial would be quite inconvenient for your little "president"

Too many questions would be asked. Some of the answers might cause discomfort--reminiscences of old family business ties, Osama's pals in the CIA, etc.

Current estimates have his body being thawed out just before the election. Too long a time frame would allow the country to see that terrorism will continue whether or not Osama is alive.

[catmandu57]

9. Anyone know the life expectancy of someone on dialysis?

I've had the feeling that if osama is alive by now his kidneys have deteriorated to the point of his being an invalid. In fact I believe he is in his families bosom in Saudi Arabia, that would be the best chance he has of remaining alive. It would take a healthy person to be goat stepping through the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

If they did find him, if they publicly executed him at ground zero it's not going to change the domestic situation here, it's not going to put enough people to work to get the economy going, you can't eat good feelings, you can't drive on good feelings, and you can't lie your way out of the fact that we illegally invaded another country, killed thousands of their citizens, thrown them into chaos, out the world at peril for a lie.
Used our blood and treasure in a vendetta, no, getting osama is not going to help georgie*, not enough to make a fat rat's ass of difference come November

edited for typos.

[radwriter0555]

11. he's dead.

been dead since december 2001.

and buried.

[tjwash]

13. There will be mass rejoicing in the streets.

/sarcasm

And the Iraqis will throw flowers at our soldiers, and the economy will rebound, and all the dead soldiers and civilians from the Iraq quagmire (has fearless leader given us permission to call it a quagmire yet?) will come back to life and go back home to their families, and halliburton will give back all the money they stole, they will dissolve the rape of the bill of rights, and...

/end sarcasm

OK what will most likely happen is he will get a bump in the polls for a few weeks until the next suicide bombing happens, and he will plummet like a rock in a lake after everyone realizes that this is a completely different type of war.