The big news of the day is that Osama Bin Ladin was evidently involved in the intense fighting at Tora Bora in December as the last vestiges of the Taliban collapsed. Scapegoat Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks is being blamed for not committing US troops to the battle early enough to capture of kill Bin Ladin.

At this point I think it’s valuable to put a few facts together. The borders of the US are safe again. Bin Ladin is living from cave to cave, wiping his own ass with his hand. That’s the closest he’s going to get to being put in jail, so I’m not sure it’s a huge deal that we didn’t get him in the December battle.

That is, of course, if we stick to our resolve to fight terror. If we loosen up of the coming years, he could easily build back up. Look what we did with Saddam. Of course our intentions were good, but with our faith in an agreement and UN inspectors, he just may be back to nearly pre-war strength. Remember Bush Sr. said the aim of the Persian Gulf War was to set Iraq back 10 years. It’s been 11 years since the Gulf War.

Speaking of Iraq, according to Gallup 59 percent of Americans favor sending U.S. troops to invade Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power. And 81 percent believe it “likely”” that U.S. troops will be sent to Israel. Yet when the same Americans are asked if President Bush has a “well-thought-out” Mideast policy, the answer comes back almost split, with 48 percent saying he does and 47 percent saying he doesn’t.

My liberal pal, Chris Mathews, said it best:

At the very time the United States faces global Islamic hostility for our support of Israel, a strong majority of Americans wants to invade an Arab country. They would be willing to send hundreds of thousands of our troops to Baghdad, thereby establishing a second East-West front. With Israeli tanks rolling through the streets of the West Bank, killing Arabs, American tanks would be rolling through the streets of Baghdad, killing Arabs.

Can you imagine some guy from Arkansas trying to tell the tough-as-nails Israeli Defense Force not to protect its country? Can you imagine some kid from the Bronx trying to figure which Palestinian might have suicide in mind? I think they’d have a hard time with that mission even if they knew Hebrew and Arabic both.