Letter: Botched effort to get bin Laden

Friday, Oct. 8, 2004 | 8:55 a.m.

George Bush declared war on terrorists and any nation that harbors them in a rousing speech on Sept. 20, 2001. This war has been the focus of his administration. Results count, so let's look at the record.

The Northern Alliance, with great help from the Air Force, advanced and took Kabul. The local warlords, the real rulers of Afghanistan, saw the Air Force contrails as the handwriting on the wall. They switched sides, and the Taliban was finished. Osama bin Laden and his surviving followers (many were killed defending the Taliban) took refuge in the caves at Bora Bora.

These caves protected bin Laden and the Mujahedeen for 10 years while they harassed the Russian military. Huge bombs dropped with precision by our Air Force closed the entrances to these caves and turned them into death traps.

If Bush had stationed a large force of Marines around these caves, they would have killed or captured bin Laden and all of this followers. But with his passion for privatizing the military, our commander in chief contracted this job to a local warlord. This former Taliban ally let bin Laden and his al-Qaida members escape to Pakistan.

Results count. George Bush had a golden opportunity to score a decisive victory over terrorists, and he blew it.

VERNON BOSTICK