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Thank you Rummy

Rumsfeld: Bin Laden isn’t only problem

WASHINGTON (AP) — Capturing or killing al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden would not “change the problem” of international terrorism, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday.

Rumsfeld also raised the possibility that bin Laden was dead.

“The reality is that bin Laden is spending a great deal of his time — if he is alive today — hiding and running and trying to communicate and trying to survive,” Rumsfeld said in an interview at the Pentagon with WTN radio in Nashville.

“It would be a good thing if he were not there, but it certainly isn’t going to change the problem. We’re going to have to find the rest of the terrorists and his associates and see that they’re put in jail.”

Well, no shit. I thought if we caught it’d all be over and everything would be wonderful and we could all live happily ever after. Sheesh.

Also, I’m going to go into some paranoid, reading too much into the statements thoughts, so just bear with me.

There have been reports that bin Laden has been caught. It seems that Rumsfeld is downplaying the importance of bin Laden. If bin Laden has actually been caught, would he have said this? Wouldn’t he been hyping the importance of catching bin Laden? Or, is he being clever, downplaying it so we aren’t suspicious? When they “catch” bin Laden in October, defenders can point to the fact that they’ve tried to downplay his importance, and it would be stupid to do that if you were going to “catch” him just before the elections.

Take from that what you will, but be advised it is 1 am and I am hopped up on girl scout cookies.

Categories: Foreign Policy
  1. March 18, 2004 at 12:00 pm | #1

    Damn girl scouts. That’s how they get you.

    Seriously, though, I’m not sure Rumsfeld is capable of that type of subtext. He seems to thick to be clever.

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