CSULB Online 49er: v9n126: Bin Laden not quite dead yet

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Bin Laden not quite dead yet

U.S. government officials an nounced Monday that they now believe Osama bin Laden is alive and plotting in Pakistan. The announcement came just 10 days before we celebrate our Independence Day.

Officials are urging Americans to be extra careful and aware of their surroundings while enjoying the holiday. But as Americans, we cannot let concerns of new terrorist attacks on our country get in the way of our celebrations.

Everyone from psychiatrists to President George Bush is saying that we need to get on with out lives and try to get back to normal in the aftermath of Sept. 11. So what if a boatload of al-Quida terrorists is heading toward the California coast? The Fourth of July would be a really bad day to launch another attack on America. That is the one day each year when every red-blooded America is armed with explosive devices in one hand and a beer in the other.

Americans are still angry about the devastation caused on Sept. 11. Patriotism is still running high in this country and bin Laden and his crew would be crazy to attack us on our Independence Day when everyone in the country is still mourning, is liquored up and has a box of fireworks.
The concerns raised by the government came after an interview broadcast Saturday by Al Jazeera, the Islamic world’s equivalent of CNN, in which bin Laden’s spokesman Sulaiman abu Ghaith said bin Laden and 98 percent of the al-Qaida leadership is alive and planning more attacks on the United States.

While an attack on America on the Fourth of July would be a disastrous event, it would only make things worse for bin Laden’s terrorist network.

Look how angry we were after Sept. 11. We went into a foreign country, bombed the crap out of an under-developed nation and risked alienating two-thirds of the world. And that started out as just another workday. Can you imagine if those guys disrupted our fireworks, beer and barbecues? The stuff would hit the fan.

At least our government has finally decided that bin Laden is still alive. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield said in March that the U.S. government was sure that bin Laden was either “dead in Afghanistan or alive and hiding in Afghanistan, Pakistan or some other country.”

Sen. John Kerry said that he feels al-Qaida is more dangerous now than when it was in the mountains of Tora Bora. The only real advantage to the months-long campaign against al-Qaida in Afghanistan was that the Taliban regime was ousted from power. But as far as a war on terrorism, the United States has not made a dent. Al-Qaida has now spread into other countries and the only way we can track down its operatives is to expand bombings, raids and other activities into countless other countries.

The problem is that the neighboring countries where al-Qaida forces have gone into hiding are more powerful than Afghanistan. It is sad to say, but the only reason U.S. forces could get away with bombings in Afghanistan is that no one in international circles really cares about that country. It has been ravaged by wars and land battles for the past 20 years, so who really cares if we went in and destroyed even more of the country’s extremely limited infrastructure?

But al-Qaida forces have moved into Pakistan, a country with a nuclear arsenal. There is no way President Bush would authorize a bombing campaign in Pakistan, because there is so much more at stake. But it was OK to go in and blow Afghanistan to bits because they did not have nuclear capabilities.

This new revelation about bin Laden’s whereabouts will really force Bush to make a stand in regards to his war on terrorism. He has said that the administration is considering moving into Iraq and Iran to purse other cells of al-Qaida, but nothing has been done yet. Now that we think bin Laden is in Pakistan, are we going drop some smart bombs on the Pakistanis and try to force bin Laden out again? It’s not likely.