Bin Laden, Omar Alive and Well, Taliban Official Says.

From the Associated Press:

Osama bin Laden is alive and in good health, as is fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar, a purported senior commander of the ousted militia said Wednesday in a television interview.

HE'S BACK!Just when you thought it was safe to crawl out of your chemically-sealed-with-plastic-sheeting-and-duck-tape bomb shelter, the bogeyman himself pops up to say "BOO!" to the American public. After three years with a multi-million dollar bounty on his head and thousands of "Dead or Alive" wanted posters printed by the Bush White House, Osama bin Laden is still alive and happily thumbing his nose at the United States.

Bin Laden is having the time of his life now. He's got a lovely guerrilla war taking place in the Taliban-controlled mountainous regions between the Afghan-Pakistani border, a completely bogged down U.S. military fighting a losing battle with insurgents in Iraq, and inflamed Middle Eastern population infuriated at what they see as American imperialism, and Al Qaida recruitment offices happily signing up new members to fight his holy war with the United States. Oh, and if Bin Laden is smart enough to check up on the American press, he's probably laughing at how the U.S. military's recruitment numbers have dropped.

Let's face it. The United States screwed up big time. After the World Trade Center attacks, we had the chance to go after Bin Laden with some serious force. When Bin Laden was trapped in the mountains of Tora Bora, we could have gone in there with overwhelming force, manpower, and firepower to completely destroy Bin Laden, Omar, the Taliban, and Al Qaida. Instead, we let poorly trained Afghan forces of the Northern Alliance muck everything up, while the bulk of the American military was transferred to Iraq for Bush's pet invasion (And achieve PNAC's incompetent goal of establishing Iraq to be the 51st state). We screwed up.

And now Bin Laden is laughing at us.