U.S. Planes Pound Al Qaeda Troops on Mountain Ridge (Update2)

Tampa, Florida, Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. warplanes pounded the Tora Bora area in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda fighters are making a last stand.

U.S. and allied ground troops joined Afghan soldiers moving up two valleys toward ridges where 300 to 1,000 al-Qaeda are ``contained,'' said Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The 'True Believers'

Despite the optimism in the media on Thursday that Osama Bin Laden had likely slipped into neighboring Pakistan, the growing empirical evidence suggests the sanguinesness was premature.
Data gleaned from U.S. surveillance drones and enemy radio and satellite communications intercepts strongly indicate the terror mastermind is still ensconced inside the cave complex of Tora Bora. In fact, Saturday's Washington Times reports that Special Operations ground forces reportedly overheard Bin Laden's characteristic voice over Walkie-Talkie radio, issuing orders to the hundreds of Saudi, Chechen and Pakistani terrorists battling the anti-Taliban Eastern Alliance in the rugged mountains of the region.
On Thursday, a bulletin posted on the Christian Science Monitor website purported to show the world's most wanted fugitive had already fled to Pakistan. The "report", based on dubious sources, has since been thoroughly discredited.
While nothing is etched in stone, U.S. commanders are growing increasingly confident that the clock is ticking on Bin Laden, the diabolical monster responsible for the most deadly act of domestic terrorism ever perpetrated on American soil.
The mounting evidence apparently has not dissuaded the 'true believers' in the least, however. William Arkin, "senior" military "analyst" for MSNBC (and perennial pessimist), last night boldly predicted on Hardball that Osama Bin Laden will never be captured. Michael Griffin, author of Reaping the Whirlwind, also appearing on Hardball, lightly dismissed the bombing over Tora Bora as a waste of time, since -- according to him -- Bin Laden had long ago skipped to Kandahar.
Gee, if only our CIA and military heeded the vastly superior intelligence collection and analytical prowess of Arkin and Griffin, why, Osama would long ago have been nabbed.
</sarcasm>
The powerful urge the media feels to pooh-pooh the chances of Bin Laden's capture assumes an almost religious-like fervor. It stems from their delusional fixation to that aura, that image, that inscrutable mystique they themselves have cultivated around Osama Bin Laden -- the "legend" in their own minds. Essentially, the media kooks are enthralled and enchanted by a myth of their own making.
In their fantasies, Bin Laden is bigger than life itself, immune from armies, from bullets, from bombs, from Gatling guns. Their make-believe world can not countenance Bin Laden being tricked or outmaneuvered by the "enemy".
And if -- IF -- by chance fate should catch up with him, still he dies the death of a "martyr"; in their eyes, he remains 'unbowed and undefeated' -- at all times, firmly in control of his "destiny". From whence the flurry of OBL "suicide" stories came, none of them confirmed.
To the sickos in the media, whether he lives or he dies in the end, he's still the victor.
Hyperbole, you say?
I say, stay tuned.
My two cents..
"JohnHuang2"
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