Al-qaedas Great Escape: The Military And The Media On Terrors Trail

When president Bush announced in a televised speech the week after September 11, that he wanted Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," a grieving nation seeking justice and revenge roared in approval. Two years letter, as AI Qaeda's associates mounted almost weekly attacks against U.S. interests and bin Laden still roamed the earth as a free man, Americans wondered why. With both the military and the media declaring the war in Afghanistan over and a resounding success, Philip Smucker examines in AI-Qaeda's Great Escape what kind king of victory we can rightfully claim. Primarily focusing on the major battles of Tora Bora and Operation Anaconda, Smucker details how bin Laden and scores of highly trained AI Qaeda fighters managed to slip unnoticed out of eastem Afghanistan, despite the presence of the overwhelming U.S. military power that had already-decimated the Taliban. To balance his reproach, Smucker turns a critical eye on post-9/11 developments in his own profession. Bllinding patriotisms and an unhealthy reliance on the pentagon's press releases led the media to portray events that did not reflect the reality on the ground in Afghanistan. Likely the most grievous error of the ongoing campaign in Afghanistan, allowing members of AI Qaeda to escape, has given them the option to regroup, there by posing a dangerous resurgent threat to U.S. national security. ISBN:8170492610 228 Yr. of Pub.2005 Hard Bound