Richard WarnickMcCain’s Secret Plan to Capture Osama bin Laden
Raw Story reporter Eric Brewer recently asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino to comment on Senator McCain’s interesting claim that he knows how to find Osama bin Laden.
Q: John McCain said recently that he knows how to get Osama bin Laden. And a couple of months ago he said that he knows how to improve our capabilities so that we would capture bin Laden. Has Senator McCain shared his knowledge with the President?
MS. PERINO: Maybe you haven’t been here. I’ve been very astute at not getting involved in the 2008 election, and I’m not going to start now.
Q: It has nothing to do with the elections.
MS. PERINO: Yeah, it does. It has everything to do with the election. That’s exactly why you’re asking the question. And I’m not going to answer it.
More than a year ago, and many times since. Senator McCain talked about a plan to “get” bin Laden: “As president of the United States I will get him,” McCain said. “I’ll bring bin Laden to justice, I promise you.” During last Tuesday’s presidential debate, McCain said:
I’ll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I’ll get him. I know how to get him. …I’ll get him no matter what and I know how to do it.
Brewer lists four possibilities:
1). McCain thinks he knows how to capture Osama, has told Bush how to do it, and it’s not working;
2). McCain knows how to capture Osama, has told Bush how to do it, and Bush is waiting for the most politically opportune time to execute the plan;
3). McCain knows how to capture Osama, but is keeping his plan a secret, therefore putting his own political fortunes over those of his country; or
4). McCain doesn’t have a clue about how to catch Osama.
Senator McCain also likes to say “I know how to win wars.” Another extravagant claim that lacks supporting evidence.
Of course, capturing or killing the leader of al-Qaeda is not a trivial task. The evidence is mounting that President Bush and SecDef Donald Rumsfeld botched the only serious attempt so far. Watch this segment from last night’s “Rachel Maddow Show.” She interviews a former Army major who led the secret Delta Force mission to try to kill Osama bin Laden nine weeks after 9/11.
Bush’s Global War on Terror has been yet another administration fiasco. Al-Qaeda is stronger than ever, even though the world’s military superpower has supposedly been devoting all its might to fighting them for 7 long years.
UPDATE: Despite the findings of a new NIE on Afghanistan, the McCain campaign is still clinging to the boneheaded concept that Iraq is the “central front in the war on terror.”
October 10th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Nixon in 1968 didn’t explicitly have a secret plan to end the Vietnam War, but he implied that he knew how to do it without going into details.
October 10th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Larry– That was back in the days when Democrats got us into wars and Republicans promised to make peace. Now it’s the reverse.
October 10th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
The same army major that was on Rachel Maddow’s program was on 60 Minutes last Sunday. Here’s the link. He provides even more detail and leaves many new questions as to why we were not successful — why were plans canceled by unknown higher-ups?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/02/60minutes/main4494937.shtml
October 10th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Richard W:
Oops! That wasn’t me, it was Leo.
Why do you think the Vietnam war ended?
October 11th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Larry– Sorry, I was in a hurry and I got you guys mixed up. My bad.
In answer to your question, I think the Vietnam War ended (for the USA) because President Johnson had to give up the Presidency and the next President, Nixon, knew he could not get re-elected either unless our forces were being withdrawn from Vietnam. Seems like we’re in a similar political dynamic now in the case of Iraq withdrawal.