A quote from the Associated Press and a couple of questions:
WASHINGTON (AP) – Despite a massive number of tips, rumors and other intelligence, the U.S. military has never had good enough information on Osama bin Laden's whereabouts to mount a mission to go after him, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday.
"We have seen repeated speculation about his possible location," Rumsfeld said. But the pieces of information "haven't been actionable, they haven't been provable, they haven't resulted in our ability to track something down and actually do something about it."
So exactly why have we been bombing where we've been bombing? Is this the smartest thing for our Defense Secretary to admit? And why is anyone faulting Democrats for criticizing the war on terrorism when Rumsfeld's out there saying stuff like this?
Put this in another context. A master criminal has committed and practically confessed to a heinous mass murder. The police vow to catch him and spend seven months scouring the city, smashing down doors and killing a number of innocent people in the search. Then the Chief of Police goes on television and says, "We have no idea where he is and we've never really had a solid lead."
How much longer do we think that Police Chief's going to be wearing that badge?