Troops Could Have Gotten Bin Laden in 2001-- Assessment Comes From Army War College Strategic Studies Institute

Tora Bora Mountains, Afghanistan

We may have lost the war to stabilize the Middle East in that region

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 The big news broke this weekend (again), but some of us knew this since 2002.  It has been verified over and over, and now it's out one more time, hopefully with a big enough splash to overshadow the Tiger Woods accident.

I first became concerned in December 2001 when even the night's news reported that the al Qaeda leadership core was trapped in Tora Bora and after bombing the area with "Daisy Cutters" the military was going to send in mostly units of Afghan tribesman.  When I was talking with my father, he remarked that the tribesmen wp probably just bought off by the Qaeda chiefs who would then be allowed to escape to Pakistan.

Now I'm sure that many people are saying the news the was passed around this weekend was some kind of political game, but it was first introduced in 2002 by the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), to help the US to avoid such blunders in the future. Unfortunately the Bush administration continued to believe in cheap and easy war, and one of our closest allies continues to push us for at least one more regime change in the Middle East, though they themselves have no interest in helping us do the hard work. 

November 2002 a report from the SSI (download PDF from here ) noted:

At Tora Bora, failure to commit properly trained and motivated ground troops to traditional close combat probably allowed the al Qaeda quarry to escape..

 And later in the report:

A related critique rests on the politico-military disadvantages of relying so heavily on local proxies who may not share our aims. Many such analysts point to the fighting at Tora Bora, where Afghan allies with different interests than ours apparently failed to press the attack and may have allowed Osama bin Laden to escape. To secure U.S. interests, they argue, will often require that U.S., not
foreign, troops do the heavy lifting.

As you can see this is an analysis that was written from within the military to make the armed forces better, not to score political points. And you can find other portions which describe the success and failures of Afghan military forces working with the US special forces by searching for Tora Bora.

To read the details in the latest release of this information, see the Political Animal "Tora Bora"

Another AWC- SSI report came out a while later that reported that the decision to send  native militias into Tora Bora to roust Bin Laden rested in Washington DC, not with local commanders as first asserted by the Bush White House, and was due to the reluctance to waste American favor for war.  I can't find that one right now.  It might have disappeared during the Bush administration, but this AWC-SSI report shows that the AFghan war became a game of hide the blame and major blunders were done by the Bush administration that lead to the difficult position we are in today, 

We are on a ledge in Afghanistan trying to find a way down.  Meanwhile he Obama administration is being bashed by enemies, political opponent, and even political and world allies.

I am back to urging, especially to liberals, to cut the president some slack.  Let him make his own mistake, especially since the way we constantly bash him is likely to lead to an overturn of Congress in the favor of the Repulicans and possibly to the loss of the White House in 2012 back to the party that is willing to fight wars so their big campaign contributors can grab the resources of weak nations like Exxon got 80% of one of the largest southern Iraqi oil fields.

tags: tora bora  afghan war  afghanistan  iraq  stabilize  war for resources  

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