Bush has managed to destroy another General's credibility

[MSgt213]

First Colin Powell and now Tommy Franks has zero credibility after supporting this idiot.

Did U.S. mistakes let bin Laden escape from Afghanistan 3 years ago?

WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden's reappearance on Friday in a videotape has revived the controversy over how the al Qaida leader and many of his fighters escaped from American troops and their local allies in Afghanistan three years ago.

Sen. John Kerry has suggested several times that the Bush administration failed to kill or capture bin Laden because it turned the job over to Afghan warlords.

<snip>
"Writing in The New York Times on Oct. 19, retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, said it isn't clear that bin Laden was in Tora Bora at the time and denied that the United States "outsourced" military action. "Afghans weren't left to do the job alone," Franks wrote. "Special forces from the United States and several other countries were there, providing tactical leadership and calling in air strikes."

<snip>
Knight Ridder reporters Barry Schlachter of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Jonathan S. Landay and photographers Carl Juste and Peter Andrew Bosch of The Miami Herald were at Tora Bora during the battle, and photographer David Gilkey of the Detroit Free Press and reporter Drew Brown traveled there a year later, interviewed Afghan fighters, retraced al-Qaida escape routes and talked to Pakistani intelligence officers who were tracking al Qaida.

Their reporting found that Franks and other top officials ignored warnings from their own and allied military and intelligence officers that the combination of precision bombing, special operations forces and Afghan forces that had driven the Taliban from northern Afghanistan might not work in the heartland of the country's dominant Pashtun tribe.

While more than 1,200 U.S. Marines sat at an abandoned air base in the desert 80 miles away, Franks and other commanders relied on three Afghan warlords and a small number of American, British and Australian special forces to stop al-Qaida and Taliban fighters from escaping across the mountains into Pakistan.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10057295.htm

[AIJ Alom]

1. Great post. Everyone READ this ! More holes shot in Bush's credibility.n/t

[Gin]

2. who called the shots in Afghanistan? Franks or the Pentagon?

During VietNam...Rummy called the shots for the military from DC...he has repeated the same mistakes this time around thinking ..the end result will be success....Yep...he is definitely insane.

[jean]

3. Anyone who has aligned with bush has had their reputations ruined

Krugman was talking about economists - any that stood up for bush have seen their professional reputations go right down the toilet.

[sendero]

4. Man .....

... I hope that is so. An economist should not be an idealogue. If you believe the economy is going to do well for no other reason than "my guy is running it", you aren't an economist at all and you shouldn't be getting paid as one.