Stardate 20011025.0558 (On Screen): British Prime Minister Tony Blair predicts that bin Laden will eventually be killed in the fighting. On the other hand, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
says he might get away. In fact, no-one really knows. There are certain people who are fixated on bin Laden and don't see the larger picture. He's been a convenient symbol to use for this because of his extreme positions and because to the western eye the man is physically repulsive; it's always useful to have
a single face to use in a war to symbolize the opposition, but in this case that may backfire. Too many people are still convinced that this is some sort of glorified law enforcement operation, to "punish" those responsible for the attacks on 9/11; and excessive attention paid to bin Laden may convince such people that the war will end when he's dead.
That was never really the goal; the purpose was to try, as much as possible, to prevent future attacks: to eviscerate al Qaeda, to cripple its ability to train men and to launch future attacks. (And even that was only the first stage; al Qaeda is only one of several such dangers which must be removed.) If bin Laden does get away, he'll be found and assassinated eventually, but that doesn't really make any difference. If he does get away but no longer has any ability to organize future attacks against us, one of the purposes of this war will have been satisfied. (discussion in progress
)
