So, is bin Laden DU's new hero? Have I awakened to Bizzaroworld today?

[Skidmore]

For nearly a decade we descried */Cheney for not taking this criminal out when they could. For nearly a decade on these forums, we saw thread after thread entitled something like "Why is bin Laden still alive?", "Why can't they catch this villian?", and so on and so forth. We were able to ask this while insisting that we move toward opening dialogue and avenues to peace in a complex and sometimes primitive area of the world with a competing theology on the world stage. Now I'm finding that when we are looking for him, that the arguments would suggest that he is either long dead or is some sort of sympathetic creature for exercising some sort of revolutionary zeal against some vaguely defined joint enemy.

I detest war, but this snake deserves to be removed from his position of power. */Cheney left a snake pit and good men and women have given their lives to break this network up. It just so happens that he has been given safe haven in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Where else would you have us pursue him? Why are we complaining when someone has stepped up to finish a job shirked? Why is that suddenly the conspiracy of the day? Just asking.

I have whiplash and need to find a neck brace now.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mix]

4. now that's a smear

:thumbsdown:

[demmiblue]

8. Indeed it was.

I find it odd that a person who habitually feels the need to attack the left would want to post on a board for Dems/Progressives.

:shrug:

[mix]

12. odd indeed nt

[TexasObserver]

2. You're conflating two very different themes.

He's hideous, but he's dead. The fact that the only thing from him are audio recordings that could easily be faked is one major indicator. That ridiculous attempt at using a double a while back in a video is another. Then there are the many reports from the region, which say he's dead.

It was a good arguing point with the Bush administration, because they built their two wars around him, and they surely knew he was dead.

I find all talk of Osama to be a trip down the wrong path. The GOP loves to talk about him, to invoke the image that they can exploit politically.

[Skidmore]

5. All good points. I'm just responding to a quick read

through this morning's more strident threads which seem to be tracking down both of those themes and some people actually conflating them. Seeking to point that out before we get somewhere ugly as a community.

Until there is definitive proof that this person is dead, I would choose to err on the side that he is still alive and kicking and doing what he does best--stirring the pot in a dangerous way.

[CJCRANE]

9. Is he really stirring the pot

or just providing RW talking points for conservative pundits to spew?

(I personally think Karl Rove is writing OBL's scripts these days - the reverse psychology is just too obvious).

[leveymg]

10. It's not DU that closed down the UBL hunt, it was the CIA. Read this:

#
C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden - New York Times
Jul 4, 2006 ... Video: C.I.A. Closes bin Laden Unit. Readers' Opinions. Forum: National Security .... Room for Debate: Back to Trickle-Down Economics ...
www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/.../04intel.html - Similar - Add to iGoogle
►
#

[Skidmore]

11. ????

What? Who said that?

[leveymg]

14. NYT said that. Google it. I gave you the search terms and the NYT headline.

Gotta go.

[gateley]

6. I think he's dead, too, but that really doesn't matter. Extremists/jihadists have

taken on a life of their own. They don't need him any more, but we do.

[Skidmore]

13. It does matter because a myth is being spun and used

to perpetuate war and to encourage acts of terrorism. Confirming his death might create a martyr but there are many martyrs among these people. It would force some sort of fight for his title, I believe.

[DCKit]

3. Ronald Reagan would have given him the Medal of Freedom...

just never got around to it.

Who are we to judge when St. Ronnie lauded the guy?

[mix]

7. great point! nt

[blondeatlast]

15. Too true, too true. nt

[malaise]

16. Benazir Bhutto told David Frost that Bin Laden was dead

and then suddenly she was assassinated - how has he returned?
Why has M$Greedia never played that David Frost interview.

[Skidmore]

17. At this point, I don't think anyone really knows,

except those who really know, and they aren't sharing. In the meantime, we all play a guessing game, even those who would do us harm and are not in the inner circles. The world plays a deadly guessing game.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. Descry: to catch sight of

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=descry

Maybe better to leave the specialist verbs out of it, unless you're sure of their meaning.