Sadam Hussein and Osama bin Ladin

[greatcalgarian]

How come US can capture Sadam so easily, but failed to get Osama all this time?

[Djamila]

It's politically benefitial for those in power that Osama bin Laden remains free.

It's the same with Ratko Mladic. The international community talks endlessly about the importance of capturing him and starting a trial against him for genocide committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It's been more than a decade, everyone knows he's in western Serbia - I could probably go there this weekend and find him. They don't arrest him because for as long as he's free the international community has something they can use to force Serbia to do whatever they want.

You can see every government-inspired media frenzy about Serbia needing to arrest Mladic happens whenever it's in Europe's interest to force something on Serbia. Whether it's the purchase of telecommunications companies or Kosovo's final status negotiations... it never fails.

[Comprehend]

Originally Posted by Djamila

It's politically benefitial for those in power that Osama bin Laden remains free.

It's the same with Ratko Mladic. The international community talks endlessly about the importance of capturing him and starting a trial against him for genocide committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It's been more than a decade, everyone knows he's in western Serbia - I could probably go there this weekend and find him. They don't arrest him because for as long as he's free the international community has something they can use to force Serbia to do whatever they want.

You can see every government-inspired media frenzy about Serbia needing to arrest Mladic happens whenever it's in Europe's interest to force something on Serbia. Whether it's the purchase of telecommunications companies or Kosovo's final status negotiations... it never fails.

amazingly, I am more than halfway inclined to agree with Djamila. It gives the war on terror a face. As long as we are hunting bin ladin there is an enemy. People understand Bin Ladin as an enemy, if we caught him and killed him, everyone would want the troops home. I can see the 1984 side of the argument, a perpetual war is a bad place to go.

[Hema]

Originally Posted by Djamila

It's been more than a decade, everyone knows he's in western Serbia - I could probably go there this weekend and find him.

If you do find him and you become famous - don't forget us little people on RF. When they ask you to say a few words, say that you want to give a shout out to the folks on RF!

However, it does make sense what you're saying. I never thought about it like that.

[greatcalgarian]

Originally Posted by feo caritas

amazingly, I am more than halfway inclined to agree with Djamila. It gives the war on terror a face. As long as we are hunting bin ladin there is an enemy. People understand Bin Ladin as an enemy, if we caught him and killed him, everyone would want the troops home. I can see the 1984 side of the argument, a perpetual war is a bad place to go.

So are you saying that Osama may not necessarily be an enemy and was created by CIA to be an enemy so that US government can use that as an excuse to continue to war in the Middle East?

Or are you of the opinion that he IS the enemy, but US government is purposely not capturing him because he can be used to serve the purpose you stated?