Tora Bora Revisited

In a recent post, I addressed John Kerry's ridiculous claim that we "outsourced" the job of defeating al-Qaeda at Tora Bora in December 2001. In the October 19th New York Times, someone far more qualified to discuss this issue dealt with Senator Kerry's remarks. General Tommy Franks, the man in charge of Operation Enduring Freedom, made the following points:

First, take Mr. Kerry's contention that we "had an opportunity to capture or kill Osama bin Laden" and that "we had him surrounded." We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001. Some intelligence sources said he was; others indicated he was in Pakistan at the time; still others suggested he was in Kashmir. Tora Bora was teeming with Taliban and Qaeda operatives, many of whom were killed or captured, but Mr. bin Laden was never within our grasp.

Second, we did not "outsource" military action. We did rely heavily on Afghans because they knew Tora Bora, a mountainous, geographically difficult region on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is where Afghan mujahedeen holed up for years, keeping alive their resistance to the Soviet Union. Killing and capturing Taliban and Qaeda fighters was best done by the Afghan fighters who already knew the caves and tunnels.

Third, the Afghans weren't left to do the job alone. Special forces from the United States and several other countries were there, providing tactical leadership and calling in air strikes. Pakistani troops also provided significant help - as many as 100,000 sealed the border and rounded up hundreds of Qaeda and Taliban fighters.


It seems to me that General Franks would have just a little bit more knowledge of the operational situation at Tora Bora than would Senator Kerry. As I stated in my previous post on this topic, it is clear that "Senator Kerry's statement on Tora Bora drastically oversimplifies a complicated operational situation, and represents the worst sort of second guessing." BTW, Tom Maguire points out that Kerry had a different take on events while the battle of Tora Bora was actually underway:

KERRY: Well, I think it depends on where you are tactically. They may well be doing that at some point in time. But for the moment, what we are doing, I think, is having its impact and it is the best way to protect our troops and sort of minimalize the proximity, if you will. I think we have been doing this pretty effectively and we should continue to do it that way.

John Kerry on Larry King Live, December 14, 2001


On the issue of whether Osama bin Laden escaped Tora Bora, read this terrific post by Greg Djerejian at Belgravia Dispatch. He provides an excellent analysis of all the alleged bin Laden audio and video tapes released since Tora Bora, and finds them less than convincing. Djerejian's conclusion:

I think Osama bin Laden is dead. And, if so, you might as well chalk that up, of course, on the positive side of the ledger vis-a-vis Bush's prosecution of the war on terror during his first term. Oh, be sure to think about that the next time you hear hysterical chiming-ons about all those myriad missed opportunities at Tora Bora and such.

To be fair, Lt. General David Barno, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, was reported on October 19 as saying "that bin Laden's death would be difficult to conceal from intelligence services, even if he died in a secret place, because his associates would talk about it."

Still, even if bin Laden is alive, he is barely able to elude capture, let alone effectively run a global terrorist jihad. Frankly, bin Laden is now primarily a symbol more than anything.