Though I’m not sure that listening to what the enemy actually says and reacting to those statements constitutes doing what the enemy wants.

BAYH: The Afghanistan and Pakistan are subjects for another day but since this is all tied up in the global effort against extremism and terror, as you know, things have not been going as well as we would hope in Afghanistan. And it is true we’re not going to have troops in Pakistan. Still, our resources are finite and they do have an impact. Some might look at this and say why are we devoting five times the amount of resources to a place that at this time is not the principal threat?

CROCKER: In part, Senator, to be sure that it doesn’t become that. I noted in my testimony that Osama bin Laden fairly recently referred to Iraq as the perfect base for al Qaeda and it is a reminder that for al Qaeda, having a safe base on Arab soil is extremely important today. They got close to that in ‘06.

BAYH: They apparently have one now in the tribal areas of Pakistan. In, any event, Ambassador, I appreciate your responses. And I would only caution us to not take our marching orders from Osama bin Laden. And it might occur to some that he says these things because he wants us to respond to them in a predictable way and we should not do that for him.

This is really just a variation on an old liberal saw about bin Laden wanting America to stay in Iraq and the middle east as our troops are such a great recruiting tool.  While there’s little doubt that the presence of US troops in Iraq and the middle east as a region causes outrage among certain extremist factions, the positives we’re accomplishing in the region far outweigh the negatives.

And certainly it’s rather absurd to argue that Osama wants us to stay in the middle east so that he can remain marginalized in his spider hole out in the desert.

Ultimately, boots on the ground in a middle east means that the extremists must deal with us there rather than being free to plot attacks against us here.