NATO Allies Let Bin Laden Escape

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There was an interesting article out in the NYP that goes back and looks at how Osama Bin Laden escaped Tora Bora in 2001. Most of the article rehashes the fact that the US relied on its allies in Afghanistan to block his escape, and the US relied on its ally Pakistan to block his escape, but now we get an interesting little accusation about how OTHER allies, NATO, allowed Bin Laden to escape.

One, the US unwisely trusted Pakistan to patrol its border. Two, NATO allies objected to the use of “GATOR” mines, which are dropped from planes and could have sealed up the Tora Bora area. But mostly, Fury says the decision to let Afghan allies form “the tip of the spear” was the biggest mistake. “The idea worked like a charm when we faced a common foe, the oppressive Taliban . . . but they were fighting Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden . . . we might as well have been asking for them to fight the Almighty Prophet Mohammed himself.”

In all my reading, research, conversations, etc., I have never heard about NATO blocking the use of GATOR mines. That would have been a great way to prevent Osama Bin Laden’s escape, but America’s allies let them down at every turn in 2001. I believe it, but I doubt we’ll hear Obama talk about how relying on allies isn’t as useful as it was 60yrs ago.

Similarly, I doubt that we’ll see anyone on the political left recognize that Germany and France are looking to pull out of Afghanistan rather than send more troops and do more fighting as the Obama campaign expects (according to Sen Obama, he’ll encourage them to do this by offering more foreign aid, but in the VP debate Sen Biden admitted that the very first thing a President Obama will do is CUT foreign aid.)

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Are we surprised that our “allies” let us down?

These are the allies Obama expects to help us in the future.

With help like theirs we will surely die.

Scott,

You might be interested in tuning into 60 Minutes tonight: Officer: Best Plan To Kill Osama Was Nixed

We wanted to come in on the back door.” The initial plan to climb the mountain from the Pakistan side and surprise the enemy was denied. “Whether that was central command [or] all the way up to the president of the United States, I’m not sure,” he says.

If you recall, there was a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliment. That caused the Indian Government to move troops to the Pakistan border. Pakistan moved troops from the Afghanistan border to the Indian Border in response. That allowed the terrorists to move from Tora Bora to Pakistan. It is thought the terrorst that bombed India were Arabs dressed as Pakistanians.

But the land
| mine part squares with NATO allies objecting to the landmines.
|

Ya, I got An Idea. Here, hold my sign. Thanks. I’ve got a great idea…
lets mine the major passes through the mountains used by all and sundry so
we can remove terrorists and help the locals…. Ya that’s it.

Thanks, I’ll take my sign back now.

gragor