Ken Berwitz

You could see this coming 100 miles away. 

Every mistake, every blunder, every failure that Barack Obama has been responsible for since he became President has not been his fault.  It has been George Bush's fault. 

Well, here is the latest example, via a wonderfully timed report which has been released just before Mr. Obama finally announces his decision on increasing troop strength in Afghanistan.  It comes to us from the AP and Mr. Obama's most munificent benefactors at MSNBC:

Senate report: Bin Laden was ‘within our grasp’

 

Review could be seen as warning against opponents of a troop surge now

WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report says.

The report asserts that the failure to kill or capture bin Laden at his most vulnerable in December 2001 has had lasting consequences beyond the fate of one man. Bin Laden's escape laid the foundation for today's reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan, it says.

Staff members for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democratic majority prepared the report at the request of the chairman, Sen. John Kerry, as President Barack Obama prepares to boost U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The Massachusetts senator and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate has long argued the Bush administration missed a chance to get the al-Qaida leader and top deputies when they were holed up in the forbidding mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan only three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Aimed at foes of surge?
Although limited to a review of military operations eight years old, the report could also be read as a cautionary note for those resisting an increased troop presence there now.

More pointedly, it seeks to affix a measure of blame for the state of the war today on military leaders under former president George W. Bush, specifically Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary and his top military commander, Tommy Franks.

"Removing the al-Qaida leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat," the report says. "But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide. The failure to finish the job represents a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism."

The report states categorically that bin Laden was hiding in Tora Bora when the U.S. had the means to mount a rapid assault with several thousand troops at least. It says that a review of existing literature, unclassified government records and interviews with central participants "removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora."

Fewer than 100 U.S. commandos
On or about Dec. 16, 2001, bin Laden and bodyguards "walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area," where he is still believed to be based, the report says.

Instead of a massive attack, fewer than 100 U.S. commandos, working with Afghan militias, tried to capitalize on air strikes and track down their prey.

"The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the Army, was kept on the sidelines," the report said.

At the time, Rumsfeld expressed concern that a large U.S. troop presence might fuel a backlash and he and some others said the evidence was not conclusive about bin Laden's location.

This is the mother lode of all BS.  Here's why, in no particular order:

-The report comes from the opposition party just before they need some cover for Obama's dithering and dawdling.  That blows its credibility to smithereens right there;

-This fortuitously timed report was prepared at the request of John Kerry, who a) was Bush's losing opponent in 2004 (there's a fair and balanced view) and b) has a decades-long history of being against military actions (apparently he suddenly became a hawk and a half on this one);

-The decision on how to proceed - unlike deciding how many troops to send - did not come from the White House.  It was a decision by the military people in the field.  So even if Kerry had a point, the point would be about Tommy Franks and the other field commanders, not George Bush;

-Sending in massive troops would have resulted in a wild goose chase through caves that the locals who were protecting bin laden knew like the back of their hands.  For this reason, our military probably would not have caught bin laden, but most assuredly would have sustained untold numbers of casualties.  This isn't a city block we're talking about, where the military can look  at a grid, see how tall each building is, where the doors are, etc.  These are frigging caves in the middle of nowhere.  The advantage was 100% with the enemy;

-And, in any event, though John Kerry may think he "knows" that bin laden was there, he doesn't.  In the absence of actually catching him at Tora Bora we will never know for sure;

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, maybe we can go back to wondering why Barack Obama has taken a quarter of a year to make a decision on Afghanistan, and then waited almost another week so he could announce it with the pomp and circumstance that seems so much more important to him than the decision itself.

Don't expect Kerry to be talking about that any time soon..