Where's bin Laden?

I'm getting tired of being the only guy in the media who keeps beating this drum. But I will keep beating nonetheless.

According to my calendar, about four months from now we will be marking the sixth anniversary of the biggest terrorist attack in history and the worst attack of any kind on American soil.

The mastermind of and inspiration for that attack was Osama bin Laden.

Yet, he still has not been captured or killed.

If there is one man in this world I do not want to see die of natural causes, it is bin Laden. And I think most Americans would agree with that.

Nevertheless, our top elected officials, including President Bush, demonstrate no particular concern about finding bin Laden. With all of the resources of the U.S. intelligence agencies, our spy satellites, our military infrastructure and our special forces, we have either been unable to find the perpetrator of this mass murder or unwilling.

Now a leading Republican presidential candidate affirms that we have better things to do with our time and energies than catch bin Laden.

Mitt Romney, the flip-flopping former governor of Massachusetts, says the United States would only be slightly safer if bin Laden were caught because another terrorist would rise to fill his shoes.

"It's not worth moving heaven and earth, spending billions of dollars, just trying to catch one person," he explained.

Well, for starters, there would be no need to move heaven, because bin Laden is not there and never will be. I have that on good authority. So all we really have to do is move earth. In my opinion, we should move as much earth as we need to find bin Laden.

Honestly, I don't understand this view. Is it just politics? Do Bush and Romney fear the inability to find bin Laden will be held around the necks of Republicans like some kind of albatross?

It probably will be. So get busy. Rearrange priorities. There are few things more important to America than finding and punishing this miscreant and setting an example for those who might follow.

I'm surprised at the lack of logic being employed here by people like Romney and Bush.

It started with Bush, just seven months after Sept. 11, 2001, telling us it really wasn't all that important to find bin Laden. That signaled to me — and I'm sure to many other Americans and people around the world — that he was already giving up hope of ever finding him.

Now I understand there are objectives beyond bin Laden.

But do we really have to give up on capturing or killing the man most closely associated with the attacks just because there are other objectives?

I don't think so.

Should we stop focusing our efforts on getting bin Laden because others will take his place?

I don't think so.

I think it is totally invalid. It's warped thinking.

Is bin Laden more likely to gain recruits dead or alive? I suspect it's alive. I suspect every day that goes by with this monster still breathing, other disturbed minds are seeking to join him in his jihad.

Most people want to live. I don't believe even most jihadists really want to give up their lives now and go to "paradise." Therefore, it behooves our cause to ensure bin Laden is punished in this life — not just the next.

Therefore, I echo my lonely cry: Get bin Laden!

To find out more about Joseph Farah, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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