Last night, Americans watched Sept. 11 documentaries and melodramas and reminisced about what they were doing when the United States came under attack.
Last night, probably somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Osama bin Laden celebrated. I’m sure he too spent some time reminiscing about that day, and how five years later, even with the United States making him the most wanted man in the world, he is still the top man of al-Qaida.
On Sept. 12, 2001, after the shock of the attack had settled in, I remember thinking bin Laden had just made a terrible political mistake.
Other than the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the entire world was against him. He had just killed thousands of innocent civilians and had picked a fight with the strongest military powers in the history of the world.
I figured bin Laden had a few more months in the spotlight before he would either be captured or killed. I was reassured by the president’s seemingly deep desire to bring bin Laden to justice.
“The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our No. 1 priority and we will not rest until we find him,” President George W. Bush said Sept. 13, 2001.
Well Mr. President, you must be very tired.
It has now been 60 months since Sept. 11 and bin Laden is still at large. Not just the president, but it seems a majority of the American people don’t care much about capturing the man responsible for the mass murder of thousands of Americans.
There are no protests, no marches and no outrage. Bin Laden has been pushed to the side by policy-makers and the public. We have become content with the fact bin Laden is a free man.
This is unacceptable.
One of the great tragedies of the Iraq War (and there are many) is that the United States essentially cut-and-run from Afghanistan to fight a war that had nothing to do with the War on Terror. If we put the time, effort and money into capturing bin Laden that we did in Iraq, I think it is fair to say al-Qaida would have a different leader.
Now the new fad is to talk about what to do with Iran. Every time I watch some so-called expert on cable television talk about how critical it is to get involved in Iran, I want to puke knowing bin Laden is inching further and further off the political landscape.
This is exactly what the terrorist leader wants. He has proven he is a patient man and will attack when we least suspect it. Our leaders have brushed him aside, saying his capabilities have been dramatically reduced, but bin Laden has a track record for being clever and deadly – we cannot underestimate him.
It is time for a new plan to bring bin Laden to justice. If it means taking troops out of Iraq and putting them back where they belong in Afghanistan, then so be it. Eventually, bin Laden will strike inside the United States again, and when he does, everybody will be looking at each other and asking the obvious question: “Why didn’t we catch him the first time around?”
Last night, while bin Laden was having his fifth anniversary party, families of Sept. 11 victims went through another day without the loved ones who were taken away from them five years ago.
I hope by the sixth anniversary those families will finally have the peace of mind knowing the man responsible for their pain has been brought to justice. What bothers me is I don’t think they will.
Patrick Creaven is a senior journalism major and the sports editor for the Daily Forty-Niner.