Say Anything Blog

From SFGate.com:

The U.S. military is "sure" it will catch Osama bin Laden this year, a spokesman said Thursday, but he declined to comment on where the al-Qaida leader may be hiding.

Bin Laden, chief suspect in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that sparked the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, is widely believed to be holed up somewhere along the mountainous Pakistani-Afghan border with former Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Following last month's capture of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, American commanders in Afghanistan have expressed new optimism they will eventually find bin Laden. Spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said the military now believed it could seize him within months.

"We have a variety of intelligence and we're sure we're going to catch Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar this year," Hilferty said. "We've learned lessons from Iraq and we're getting improved intelligence from the Afghan people."

Hilferty declined to comment on where exactly bin Laden or Mullah Omar might be hiding, but his optimism coincides with comments from U.S. officials in Washington that the military is planning a spring offensive against Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts.

Now why would the military go and announce something like this? Its nice that they're confident, but the potential for this announcement to blow up in their face is huge.

What if we don't catch Osama or Omar for five years? What if we don't catch them at all? As much as I'd like to see those two rat bastards in a jail cell, why be so cock-sure about it? Why not keep things quiet until we actually have the men in custody? Wouldn't that make more sense?

I have never understood why the military makes statements like these. I don't think the public needs a play-by-play rundown of the military's efforts to catch Osama. I don't need a spokesperson to get behind a microphone and tell me things like "We're close to catching him. We've got more intelligence. We've broadened our search area." These are mindless details to me. Until they actually catch Omar or Osama, all I really care to know is that they're working on it.