The Insignificance of Osama Bin Laden

January 29, 2007

The name Osama Bin Laden stirs strong emotions in nearly everyone hearing it. As the founder of the Al Qaeda terrorist network, he has admitted complicity in several terrorist attacks, most notably the cowardly attacks of September 11, 2001.

On the right, his name solidifies the determination to find and kill him, or declare him dead already since he hasn’t been heard of in some time. On the left, his name has become a tool to embarrass President George W. Bush since no one knows for sure if he is dead or alive.

We hear calls of “Osama Been Forgotten” from Democrat Senators, “Where’s Osama?” from detractors of President Bush and the War on Terror in Iraq and from the right we hear calls that he is “dead in a cave.”

Very few people in man’s history deserve death as does Bin Laden, let there be no doubt. A wealthy Saudi who uses his millions to recruit others into the deceptive cult of death he too fell prey too, many he deceived have gone on to their deaths in suicide attacks that Bin Laden himself won’t perform.

Since September 11, 2001 much focus and many man hours have been expended on finding and capturing or killing him. Prior to 9/11, several opportunities of capturing or killing him were aborted or ignored as he commissioned more attacks around the globe, killing innocents and American Government workers working in embassies and such overseas. I don’t have to tell you what September 11, 2001 brought.

This isn’t the first time our Military has been sent to find and kill one individual, especially during war or after a devastating attack. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, plunging America into World War Two, intelligence soon discovered the Japanese Admiral that planned and executed that attack was Isoroku Yamamoto. As his name was spread he too was made into a larger than life demon man and in 1943, it was discovered through intercepts that he was to make an inspection tour throughout the South Pacific. Several American aircraft were stripped of unnecessary weight and set out to intercept and kill Admiral Yamamoto. The raid was successful and the Admiral was killed on April 18, 1943.

His death did not stop World War Two or bring the Japanese to their knees. The war would last another 2 years until the Japanese finally surrendered.

During Viet Nam, Ho Chi Minh was the much hated leader of North Viet Nam. On September 2, 1969, he died. The Viet Nam War continued until US involvement ceased in 1973 and Saigon finally fell to the Communists in April 1975.

During World War Two, President Franklin Roosevelt fell ill and died on April 12, 1945. His death, while affecting many Americans, did not cause us to pull out of the war or even to lose it. Vice President Truman stood up, as mandated in the Constitution, and took the helm, guiding us to Victory. In spite of the death of our leader, we prevailed and succeeded in war.

Today, that evil person is Osama Bin Laden. Like I said earlier, few people in history deserve death more than he does, but accomplishing that will not bring the War on Terror to a close. He too has others that will and have stood up to guide their evil cult and continue in their quest to bring Western Culture to its knees and enslave the globe under radical Islam.

Before you get to thinking I advocate forgetting Bin Laden, I don’t. If alive, he is on the run and hiding out in caves in desolate areas of Afghanistan or Pakistan, where even the governments don’t know where he is. He is out of communication with his lieutenants, if he wishes to stay alive. If dead, his worthless body is buried deep within one of those caves to keep the West from knowing about it, as his lieutenants step up and direct matters for his terrorist group against the West.

I have no doubt that there are clandestine operations ongoing to find him or verify his death. If alive and captured or killed, though, his death won’t bring the war to a close, as didn’t the others.

I mention this because we hear politicians, primarily Democrats, but a few Republicans as well, use his name to call for a withdrawal from the War in Iraq to find and kill Bin Laden, as if they believe that will end the War on Terror. If only!

With Bin Laden reduced to insignificance from within his own terror group, we cannot allow our troops to become distracted by committing thousands of troops to find him while allowing the lieutenants to continue committing acts of terror.

Bin Laden’s group, Al Qaeda, is mostly working inside of Iraq today, having flooded into that country as we invaded to depose Saddam Hussein and deny Bin Laden the possibility of obtaining the WMD’s that nearly the entire world’s intelligence community said he had. Since they weren’t found there is still the chance they are stored somewhere and terrorists could obtain them. In the meantime, I feel it is best to allow our troops to fight terror wherever it rears its ugly head and use Special Forces Squads specially trained to seek out Bin Laden.

World War Two ended over 60 years ago and several of the Nazi War Criminals were never found. Others died in hiding, of old age. What is important with them is they could not commit their heinous acts again. Of course, once caught, they received the justice they were due and if Bin Laden is found, he will too.

We need not distract our troops with endless hunting for one man whose death won’t stop the war. We need to get behind them, build our forces as necessary, learn and train our troops in fighting terrorists as needed and reduce terrorism to the same insignificance Bin Laden has today, as small specially trained units seek the whereabouts of Bin Laden.

Wherever Bin Laden or his body is, it will become known one day. Let us not ignore the threat of terrorism allowing it to regroup and grow stronger while we distract the majority of our troops with searching for one man.

Lew