Don't be ridiculous. OBL attacked the most powerful country on earth, killed a few thousand civilians, trashed the economy and he's still free and pushing air past his teeth. Calling that anything but a huge victory for AQ is disingenuous in the extreme.

Trashed the economy? Nope, it was already heading into a recession when GW took office. What's amazing is that our economy DIDN'T tank after 9-11. I'll grant that, if alive, OBL is indeed free...so what? A criminal who's running from the law is "free" but that doesn't mean much when he lives looking over his shoulder 24-7.

They've proven that they can hit us with virtual impunity because we'll over react, raging off like a bull on PCP and completely missing our actual enemies.

Riiiight. Virtual impunity...just look at all the attacks on U.S. soil that they pulled off after 9-11. And yes, we overreacted and barely waited months before we retaliated.

I'll give you one point though. "Living martyr" is indeed a contradiction. I should have said a cause celeb.

That's my guess as well, if "invade" applies to dropping in some Special Forces ninjas.

If I had a good plan to get Bin Laden, I wouldn't waste it on the idiot in the white house either. I would wait for the next guy and hope for the best.

But playing the "what if" speculation game. OBL is most likely in Iran/Afghanistan, Tajikistan/Afghanistan or Iran/Pakistan region. Iran because of security against US action (but the geography is against it being Iran). Pakistan for all the reasons given before. Tajikistan for a lot of the similar reasons as Pakistan including similar geography. So the idea is similar to the surge strategy that large numbers of US troops go in from both sides of the border (pick your border or go to all three). Assuming this is the plan, then I can see that he could have taken this to Bush and Bush passed on it (there are a lot more moving parts in this than capturing OBL), so McCain would have to be president to make the policy changes needed to do this. Of course with out knowing more details of the plan (even assuming I have the broad outline of the plan right), you don't know if this is as brilliant a strategy as the surge was or couch quarterback fantasy.

"We've replaced John McCain's promised invasion of Iran with new Mussharraf Crystals. Let's see if he notices!"

Seriously, telegraphing? I knew McCain was old and all, but damn man, we have newer technology now.

I LOL-ed.

FH:

IF he's still alive, OBL is stuck in a cave and reduced to communicating with his followers through audio tapes once every six or seven months. He is weak and inconsequential which, in Arab society, is worse than dead for a leader.

Don't be ridiculous. OBL attacked the most powerful country on earth, killed a few thousand civilians, trashed the economy and he's still free and pushing air past his teeth. Calling that anything but a huge victory for AQ is disingenuous in the extreme.

They've proven that they can hit us with virtual impunity because we'll over react, raging off like a bull on PCP and completely missing our actual enemies.

But for the sake of argument, let's ignore the fact that capturing him would then make him a live martyr and a rally point for jhidadists.

"Live martyr" is a contradiction in terms. It is nonsense.

But for the sake of argument, let's ignore the fact that capturing him would then make him a live martyr and a rally point for jhidadists. McCain's doesn't think waterboarding should be allowed...so there's little chance that we'd get any information from OBL. McCain's also indicated that Gitmo should be closed, so I guess we'd keep OBL in some Federal prison in the states. McCain's also spoken against the Military Tribunals so OBL would probably get a pro-bono ACLU hot shot to defend him. So even if this wasn't utter bull$#!+ and he really did succeed in capturing OBL, what would happen? OBL would be in front of Judge Ito, on Court TV, with people in front of the courthouse holding both "Free Mumia" and "Free OBL" signs and might get 10 years and paroled in 3.

“One thing I will not do is telegraph my punches. Osama bin Laden will be the last to know,”

Um, that makes no sense. If Osama is the last to know, then the rest of the world would know before him, wouldn't that be telegraphing?* If it was a secret strike, wouldn't Osama be among the first ouside of the planned operation to know? Maybe this was supposed to be along the line of "It will be the last thing he knows", in which case we don't need another President screwing up the English language.

At any rate, feel free to speculate what the “secret plan” is in the comments below.

Here's my secret plan: Look for him!
I'll even give the current administration a hint: He's not in Iraq (or Iran).

* Seriously, telegraphing? I knew McCain was old and all, but damn man, we have newer technology now.