Army Chief of Staff: Howard Dean was Right

[Thorgrim]

Thorgrim --

It appears that you have not posted on our forums in several weeks.

Why not take a few moments to post a thread about something happening in the world, or add a reply to a currently active thread? There are many active threads which would benefit from your opinion and an additional point of view!

Ok I give in, I'll post

The Army's highest-ranking officer said Friday that he was unsure whether the U.S. military would capture or kill Osama bin Laden, adding, "I don't know that it's all that important, frankly."

"So we get him, and then what?" asked Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the outgoing Army chief of staff, at a Rotary Club of Fort Worth luncheon. "There's a temporary feeling of goodness, but in the long run, we may make him bigger than he is today.

Schoomaker pointed to the capture of Saddam Hussein, the killings of his sons, Uday and Qusay, and the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as evidence that the capture or death of al-Qaeda's leader would have little effect on threats to the United States

washingtonpost.com

Anti-war candidate Howard Dean said Monday "the capture of Saddam has not made America safer," directly contradicting President Bush and drawing the wrath of two Democratic presidential rivals

Howard Dean is a great visionary, back then I believed, after seeing the write ups, that Saddam in a hole meant the same for America as Saddam in a jail cell hole

After all, the Sunni insurgency rejected his advice of staying away from Al-Qaeda, he had become an almost useless figure as his money had already been allocated to baathists...his death actually rallied Sunnis against the Shia lynching...a net negative for the US...there were no big trials about his atrocities...only that he may have executed several dozen villagers who protected assassins

Did you think Saddam's capture was a turning point...do you now? Why?

[motivez]

So are you saying that Osama's capture isn't really that important anymore? I'm kinda confused at the point you're trying to drive home.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by motivez

So are you saying that Osama's capture isn't really that important anymore? I'm kinda confused at the point you're trying to drive home.

It'd be symbolic, and much more important than Saddam, but at this stage I think it's pretty clear his main objective is to stay alive...not hatch terrorist plots, and all his money is already within the organization, his death shouldn't hurt funding

Infact, his death might help Al-Qaeda by possibly causing a mini-uprising in Pakistan by those who love and adore him...and many of those people are not terrorists, just ignorant, and they have family ties to people who are in positions of power in nuclear-armed Pakistan

He should still die, but an intellectual analysis of the situation would realize that it wouldn't do much on the ground