we lost that opportunity at Tora Bora.
if we all were of the same live-and-let-live persuasion as musharraf seems to be--at least when it comes to dealing with those more potentially dangerous than elderly supreme court justices--and if we could be sure those who escaped into khyber, kurram, bajaur, mohmand and orakzai as well as both north and south waziristan could never again find their way back to the world, simply writing off bin laden and his egyptian karl rove surrogate would be less problematic.
as i wander further into the mist of pre-post-early onset senility, i find myself increasingly less able to recall everything kerry said during the 2004 campaign. i certainly don't remember him suggesting--much less actually concluding--we'd never again have an opportunity to capture bin laden, al-zawahiri & their lil playmates. just the opposite actually.
it's all pretty much a blur but i think i heard kerry commit to making capturing bin laden more of a priority than george w bush's disappointing emulation of oj simpson hunting for his wife's killer at golf courses all over the world. (if osama was hidin in a brush pile somewhere near crawford, tx, sooner or later we could be sure ol lonesome george would be haulin him off to justice; when it comes to clearin brush that man is easily no worse than anyone else,)