Originally posted by chaz:
I think one of the most signifigant points raised over and over is why, when they supposedly had Osama and his guys cornered, did they "outsource" his capture to local warlards? To be perfectly honest I'm not even sure of the validity of this claim made by the Dems but Bush and Dick each have had 2 chances during the debates to comment on it. In every instance of its mention they both failed to address this. The fact that they've not taken the opportunity to respond to these statement doesn't look too good and leads me to believe that the Dem's claims are in fact spot-on.
But it's not like my vote is up for grabs or anything anyway.
From the Washington Post:
Edwards's statement that U.S. forces allowed Osama bin Laden to escape during the battle at Tora Bora in 2001 echoed Kerry's repeated assertions about the December 2001 battle in Afghanistan during last Thursday's debate. The Pentagon in fact relied on Afghan proxy forces in an effort to minimize the potential loss of U.S. military lives, but whether bin Laden was at Tora Bora at the time of the assault there has been the subject of debate. After the battle, intelligence officials assembled what they believed was decisive evidence that bin Laden began the battle inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border before slipping away. But retired Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, a Bush backer who led U.S. Central Command in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, has said he never saw conclusive proof that the al Qaeda leader was in Tora Bora at the time.
Franks has taken responsibility for the decision to send Afghan militias rather than U.S. ground troops to Tora Bora. During an interview last month at the Republican convention in New York, where the retired general endorsed Bush and addressed the delegates, Franks said his decision was influenced by the Soviet Union's disastrous efforts in the 1980s to fight with ground troops in Afghanistan. He also said the strategy was to use Afghan forces, backed by U.S. air power, to drive al Qaeda toward the Pakistani border, where 100,000 Pakistani troops killed and captured hundreds of al Qaeda operatives. Bin Laden was not among them.
After the Tora Bora fight, as local Afghan militias began withdrawing, considering their part of the war over, top Pentagon officials appeared ready to send hundreds of conventional ground troops into the White Mountains to press the search for bin Laden and his associates. That plan was dropped in favor of offers of money, weapons and cold-weather clothing to sustain Afghan cooperation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/debatereferee/1005c_text.html
