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October 31, 2004
There He Goes Again
John Kerry just will not stop the lies about Tora Bora. Once again, yesterday he repeated the same old tired canard
"When Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora, he was wrong to outsource the job of capturing them to Afghan warlords — who a week earlier were fighting against us — instead of using the best-trained troops in the world, who wanted to avenge America for what happened in New York and Pennsylvania and in Washington," Mr. Kerry told a crowd of supporters at a campaign stop in Appleton, Wis., yesterday morning.Wrong on any number of counts.
Tommy Franks, commander of CENTCOM (Central Command) during the operations in Afghanistan, wrote in a New York Times editorial last week that Kerry's "understanding of events doesn't square with reality."
First, take Mr. Kerry's contention that we "had an opportunity to capture or kill Osama bin Laden" and that "we had him surrounded." We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001. Some intelligence sources said he was; others indicated he was in Pakistan at the time; still others suggested he was in Kashmir. Tora Bora was teeming with Taliban and Qaeda operatives, many of whom were killed or captured, but Mr. bin Laden was never within our grasp.
Second, we did not "outsource" military action. We did rely heavily on Afghans because they knew Tora Bora, a mountainous, geographically difficult region on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is where Afghan mujahedeen holed up for years, keeping alive their resistance to the Soviet Union. Killing and capturing Taliban and Qaeda fighters was best done by the Afghan fighters who already knew the caves and tunnels.
Third, the Afghans weren't left to do the job alone. Special forces from the United States and several other countries were there, providing tactical leadership and calling in air strikes. Pakistani troops also provided significant help - as many as 100,000 sealed the border and rounded up hundreds of Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
(hat tip to Kat - Middle Ground)
Kerry seems to think that we should have flooded Afghanistan with troops. But, er, didn't the Soviets try that in the 1980's, Senator? And wasn't it an utter failure, mostly because it alienated the Afghanis?
Posted by Tom at October 31, 2004 7:27 PM
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