re: #81 Killgore Trout

Not really. He is mischaracterizing his opponent’s position but he’s criticizing the populist angle of capturing/killing bin laden as the most important factor in fighting global terrorism. He is correct. At the time of Bin Landen’s death he really didn’t have a whole lot of control of Al Qaeda anyways. The global network had been disrupted, moving money and communications were dificult and they had a hell of a time pulling off a successful operation or even building a functioning bomb.
If we had simply executed bin laden on 9-12 the network would have continued to operate. A much larger comprehensive effort is what brought down al qaeda.

True, but unimportant. Symbols are real, and the Republicans have not disdained to use emotional and symbolic language to discuss the war on terror. If they do in the case of discounting the importance of Bin Laden, it’s because they thought they couldn’t get him.