The Marginalization Outrage

It's time to get into a subject that somewhere along the way became unfashionable and unpopular to mention. As a conservative and an American, it astounds me that some others who call themselves conservatives and Americans have for years now---and it has been years---dismissed this topic as unimportant or passé. This may get me banned from the halls of Fox News, where rumor has it this topic is considered unmentionable.

Where is Osama Bin Laden?

Yes, the person who organized and at least partially financed the worst foreign attack on American soil ever---if we're to believe what we've been told about that. And we can, right?

The subject of Bin Laden came to mind today when I read this story about President Bush deciding to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan as we try to persuade our allies not to sell weapons to China, and as we exert pressure on Iran which has an increasingly close relationship with India. Yes, Pakistan---that predominantly Islamic nation run by a nuke-wielding General who seized power from a democratically-elected leader via a military coup, and who now refuses to hold elections. Yes, Pakistan---that island of tranquility that has never experienced the slightest bit of tension with any of its neighbors. And yes, Pakistan---the nation that for years "never knew" that its top scientist essentially held an open-ended airline ticket to travel the world selling nuclear blueprints. How many more years---and via how many more weapons sales---will the U.S. continue to reward Musharraf for conceding graciously to ground A.Q. Khan? If he delivers Bin Laden ten years from now, will we send him some aircraft carriers?

But he hasn't delivered Bin Laden yet. Perhaps he's still trying to get his story straight; for two years after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Musharraf maintained that Bin Laden was dead. After that was debunked by Bin Laden's video releases, Musharraf then began to lament that the trail had "gone cold" which seems to be a safe story for him now.

But Musharraf's excuses seem more credible than those coming from places you'd least expect. Bush's record of public comments on this is shameful. At a White House press conference in March 2002 he said, "He's just--he's a person who's now been marginalized. I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him to be honest with you. I truly am not that concerned about him."

Can you imagine if---just a few months after 9/11---a President Gore said breezily that he "truly was not that concerned" about the person who had organized and financed the murder of thousands of American civilians? How would conservatives have reacted?

Not surprisingly, some ostensibly conservative press and think-tankers took their marching orders from Bush's comments and have been advancing the "marginalization" argument ever since. One example is James Robbins, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and a contributor to National Review. Late last year he wrote:

If bin Laden is alive, he has been marginalized. He probably no longer has control over al Qaida operations, if one can properly speak of al Qaida at all any more, with 75 percent of its original leadership apprehended or killed. He would have to expend most of his energy simply to survive. It is satisfying to think of him slowly losing his grip, the Norma Desmond of terrorism, denouncing the nobodies who have succeeded him as the focus of the war, retelling stories of the triumphs of his youth to his dwindling coterie, endlessly planning his comeback, rewriting his script, making ready for his close-up.

Dismissive, flippant references to pop culture? Is this what "wanted dead or alive" has come to? Where is the outrage?

Do you take comfort in the thought that even if the Bush Administration and parts of a compliant media don't care about this menace, at least those charged with keeping us safe do? Think again. Astonishingly, in January of this year, the CIA's third most senior official made the case here that Bin Laden should remain free, casually comparing him to a "venture capitalist."

What's next for the apologists and the marginalists? Advocating the release of all death-row prisoners if they promise to live quietly in the woods and not bother anyone?

Reality check: Osama Bin Laden remains the spiritual leader of Al Qaida. He is a hero to a generation of angry Arabs who eagerly snap up t-shirts imprinted with his picture on street corners throughout the Arab and non-Arab world, and his continuing freedom feeds both mythical reverence and 9/11 conspiracy theories. Since 9/11, his organization has conducted multiple attacks in countries such as Spain, Turkey, and Indonesia. If what our political and military leaders have told us is true, Al Qaida continues to attack and kill our soldiers and civilians in Iraq. Apparently feeling comfortable enough to record videos in a television studio as shown by his last on-camera statement, Bin Laden and his accomplice Ayman al-Zawahiri continue to urge attacks on our oil supplies, our economy, our soldiers, and American civilians.

This is someone who's been marginalized? This is someone who is no longer a threat? This is someone who has been able to live almost four years longer than his thousands of victims?

If you were about to jump from the 95th floor of the World Trade Center on 9/11, what would your last thought be? Next to my family, I'll tell you what mine would be: Get the bastards who did this.

How are we doing?