This week, the world is watching as the September 11th Commission is holding their much anticipated hearings to try and determine what went wrong leading up to the September 11th attacks. The Commission feels, based on their official report which was issued prior to the hearings, that the attacks against the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania were successful due to a lack of Intelligence, miscommunication or non-communication between government agencies - and several failed attempts by both the Clinton and Bush Administrations to kill Osama Bin Laden.

In their report, the Commission cited three instances where we knew exactly where Osama Bin Laden was, had the opportunity to kill him, and didn't. "We had a round in our chamber and we didn't use it. That's how I see it," said former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey, who is a member of the September 11th Commission.

As for the "missed opportunities" to kill Osama Bin Laden:

• In December of 1998, intelligence suggested that Osama Bin Laden was at a location in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Missile strikes were prepared, but then President Clinton's advisers decided not to recommend a launch - because no one had seen Osama Bin Laden for, "a couple of hours."
  
  
• In February of 1999, Intelligence reports put Osama Bin Laden near a hunting camp in rural Afghanistan with princes from the United Arab Emirates - but Clinton policymakers worried that a strike might kill one of the princes or other officials.
  
  
• Again in Kandahar, in May, 1999, sources reported Osama Bin Laden's location over five nights - but there was no attack because of doubts about intelligence and the "risk of collateral damage."

While hearing this news infuriates me, because I want Osama Bin Laden dead more than anyone will ever know - I can truly say with confidence that even if we did kill Osama Bin Laden prior to the September 11th attacks - they still would have taken place.

To think that Al Qaeda would not have launched the devastating attack against America if we would have assassinated Osama Bin Laden beforehand is narrow-minded. When Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin was assassinated this week, they immediately elected a new leader in Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi - doesn't it make sense that if Osama Bin Laden had been killed - they would have done the same thing and appointed a new leader? Of course they would have, and probably would have carried out an even more horrific attack in retaliation for Bin Laden's death.

Also, many officials from the Bush Administration, as well as officials from allied countries believe that it was Ayman al-Zawahiri. Al Qaeda's "number two", and not Osama Bin Laden, who masterminded the September 11th atrocity. If that's the case, than that is proof that Bin Laden's death would not have stopped the attacks. In fact, in a recently released tape allegedly made by al-Zawahiri, he responded to a statement made by President Bush who claims that at least two-thirds of Al Qaeda's known leaders have either been captured or killed. "We remind [President] Bush that he didn't destroy two-thirds of Al Qaeda," al-Zawahiri said on the tape. "On the contrary, thanks be to God, Al Qaeda is still in the holy war battleground raising the banner of Islam in the face of the Zionist-Crusader campaign against the Islamic community." Again, even if we did kill or capture two-thirds of Al-Qaeda, they are still going strong and are still carrying out attacks despite the fact that more than half of their leaders are dead or captured, while the rest are in hiding and on constantly the move, desperately trying to elude Allied Forces.

Don't get me wrong, I will be the first to cheer when Osama Bin Laden is in custody. Hell, I would love nothing more than to volunteer to shove the needle in his arm. I am just stating the obvious that the capture or assassination of Osama Bin Laden prior to September 11, 2001 would not have stopped the attacks against America...

...no matter how much I wish that anything would have.