Kent Conrad: “It makes me question why for most of the last two years we have had no large-scale force hunting for bin Laden. It makes…”

“It makes me question why for most of the last two years we have had no large-scale force hunting for bin Laden. It makes me question why our military and intelligence assets that could be hunting down al-Qaida have instead been diverted to Iraq. It makes me concerned when intelligence experts tell us al-Qaida has used that breathing space to decentralize its operations so it will be harder to disrupt and destroy al-Qaida in the future, even if we do capture bin Laden. In the past few weeks, the administration has announced it has stepped up the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Sending a few thousand troops now is certainly a positive step. But I must ask with all due respect, could we have captured Osama bin Laden months ago had we kept the focus on al-Qaida? Could we have prevented the Madrid attack had we kept the focus on dismantling al-Qaida rather than going to war in Iraq? Where was the effort to find Osama bin Laden for the past two years? And why do we not have tens of thousands of troops rather than just a few thousand to hunt him down so he does not remain free to plot against this country and our allies?”