The Republican GWOT: 6 years and counting vs 6 days

   I'm sure we all remember in the days following 9/11, when we had pulled together as a nation, President Bush saying the following:

Q    Do you want bin Laden dead?

    THE PRESIDENT:  I want justice.  There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, "Wanted: Dead or Alive."

snip

Q    Are you saying you want him dead or alive, sir?  Can I interpret --

    THE PRESIDENT:  I just remember, all I'm doing is remembering when I was a kid I remember that they used to put out there in the old west, a wanted poster.  It said:  "Wanted, Dead or Alive."  All I want and America wants him brought to justice.  That's what we want.

Well, America still wants him brought to justice. It's been 6 years and you haven't had a solid lead on him in over 3 years. So you can only imagine how discouraging it was to hear this:

   

President George W. Bush's homeland security adviser said on Sunday al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is "virtually impotent" and can do little more than send videotaped messages.

   Top White House aide Fran Townsend said U.S. officials were studying bin Laden's new video tape for clues to his health or whereabouts, and whether there were any hidden meanings or messages.

   But she said there was no sign of an imminent attack.

   "This is a man on the run in a cave who is virtually impotent other than his ability to get these messages out," Townsend said on CNN's "Late Edition." "It is propaganda.

   "Based on our experience, we have never seen bin Laden use a tape to trigger any operational activity."

   Funny how having Saddam Hussein in a position of impotence, with us and the UK flying sorties over Iraq and dropping him a reminder from time to time, wasn't good enough. I guess he wasn't ambitious enough. After all Bin Laden actually attacked our country, not to mention blowing up 2 embassies, and a battleship. I guess he isn't worthy of the "justice" we were promised. Oh and by the way, Saddam's hanging wasn't exactly a model for justice.
   This is how the Republicans want the GWOT fought. The Democrats would foolhardishly treat it as a job for law enforcement. We can't have that happen, after all we remember this:

1993: World Trade Center bomb terrorises New York

A suspected car bomb has exploded underneath the World Trade Center in New York killing at least five people and injuring scores more.

The bombing has shocked America which had seemed immune from acts of terrorism that have plagued other parts of the world.

  I'm not quite sure how America survived that attack, after all, the Democrats controlled all three houses. They foolishly put all their resources into a full scale law enforcement action. You know the results:

By the sixth day, investigators had taken into custody a Muslim fundamentalist named Mohammed Salameh, who had apparently attracted the attention of authorities after continuing to demand a refund for a Ford Econoline van that he rented in New Jersey and claimed was stolen. Salameh would prove to be the first in a string of radical Muslims taken into custody.

By the end of March, five suspects had been taken into custody, with evidence pointing to a ring of Middle Eastern immigrants in the New York-New Jersey area.

snip

In January 1996, Rahman was sentenced to life without parole plus 65 years, with the others given terms ranging from 25 years to life.

As for Yousef, he went on trial in 1996 in New York for a separate conspiracy involving a plot to bomb 12 U.S. jumbo jets over the Pacific. Yousef and three others were convicted of conspiracy in the airline bombing plot in September 1996, receiving a mandatory life sentence.

Yousef went on trial for the World Trade Center bombing in 1997 and was eventually convicted of that charge too in November. In January 1998, Yousef received a sentence of 240 years in prison for the New York bombing.

 It took essentially 6 days to crack this case. Within 3 years, all the major plotters and participants had been prosecuted and convicted, except Yousef who was already serving a life sentence. I guess the Dems really fooled them by using the law enforcement approach instead of a large scale military action. If the Republicans had been in charge, they would have surrounded the perpetrators' building with a platoon of troops, and then asked the pizza delivery guy to escort them down.

 What's even more ironic is that the people the Republicans view as being best suited to fight terrorism, the Bush Administration and Rudy Guilliani, both ignored the advice of real terrorism experts to enact their own policies, which failed.

  I guess it boils down to this. If you like your terrorists making videos, support the Republicans. If you'd rather have your terrorists making license plates, support the Democrats. Videos or license plates? It's your choice.