Regarding GWBush's quotes on not caring about finding OBL...

[Catherine Vincent]

A poster on another message board (who I think was an Independent because s/he mentioned Bush and Obama and wasn't trying to protect Bush) said that they were downplaying searching for OBL because they would expect Osama and his protectors to let their guard down. Of course, we don't know if Osama and crew would actually do that but it was a good point, imo.

What do you guys think about that scenario?

[Texasgal]

1. Can you provide a link?

Easier to follow that way.

[doublethink]

2. So why in 2005 did bush close down the CIA unit .....

hunting Bin Laden down? Actions speak louder then words ..... well in this case justify bush's words. Fail. bush = fail

[pa28]

3. His actions mirrored his words.

He pulled special forces off Bin Laden in 2002 and moved the resources toward Iraq preparations. In 2006 he shuttered the CIA unit devoted to tracking him down.

No wonder Bin Laden got careless. The statements and actions of the Bush administration told him he had a pass. Unfortunately for him the "pass" did not carry over to the Obama administration.

[JHB]

4. Actions speak louder than words.

Bush chose advisors who had sneered at the Clinton Administration as being "obsessed with Bin Laden".

He put terrorism on a back burner for the first 8 months of his administration, pulling resources and personnel away from counterterrorism efforts.

He took military assets away from pursuing OBL so he could have his neoconservative joyride in Iraq.

The people doing the actual field work may have downplayed the search for Bin Laden, but Bush? Nah, Bin Laden was just a name he could invoke to get what he really wanted. Any real effective concern he had about OBL was "delegated" to someone else.

[Catherine Vincent]

5. To the two posters above me...

Thanks, I didn't know about the shutdown under Bush.

[Atman]

6. Crock of shit is what I think.

Excuse-making. Period.

[LiberalAndProud]

7. If this is victory, then it is an American victory.

Not a Democratic victory. Not a Republican victory. An American victory. Can we not fight over credit or blame? Why does everything that happens divide us along party lines? What is wrong with us?

[zinnisking]

8. A guy who masterminds a major terrorist attack halfway around the world is expected to listen to a

30 second soundbite from America and then throw all caution to the wind?

DID bin Laden throw all caution to the wind?

Did Bush's tactical soundbite strategy work?

The answer to that is clear.

Bush used the soundbite strategy in '03 after had his way with Iraq. Iraq, -sans AlQeada- pre-invasion mind you.

The tactical soundbite strategy had 6 years to do its magic. But alas...nada.

Obama said in '08 that he would get bin Laden in Pakistan.

What do I think about that?

Obama's strategy worked.

Bush was a miserable failure on every front including the '01 attacks that happened on his watch. The least he could have done was catch the mastermind.

[handmade34]

9. not worth thinking about...

GWB was aware that capturing OBL wouldn't allow him to continue operations in Irag and really didn't care... I took him at his word