I believe it was yesterday that I heard a Bush administration cabinet member (can't remember which one, but I'm thinking it was Rumsfeld in a press briefing) say that it was highly unlikely that these military actions would result in the killing or capture of Bin Laden.

Which begs the question, why engage in bombing at all if one can't even obtain the so-called "military objective" (to paraphrase Powell)?

I believe these bombings of a country which couldn't possibly retaliate against us is being done to give the Americans screaming for blood a good taste of it. I believe it is being done to prop up and bolster the Bush administration's grip on power and popularity with the voting and non-voting public. Afghanistan was chosen, because it could easily be attacked without fear of immediate military retaliation from the country being attacked.

I believe the Bush administration will use this ill-gained power to gut the civil liberties of all Americans that his father's administration was not able to accomplish during and in the wake of the Gulf war during his time. What we are seeing is the paranoid, vengeful fantasies of the Bush legacy--the CIA in full power and control of the White House, coming home to roost like carrion crow.

Why don't people understand that the WTC/Pentagon attacks was a case of the CIA's covert support of Middle East terrorism finding it's way home? Bin Laden is nothing more than a disgruntled former CIA employee. Same with the Taliban. How anyone can think that bombing the people of Afghanistan and starving them into oblivion is just retribution for the violence suffered by the innocent civilians killed here is absolutely beyond my comprehension.