FORT WORTH, Feb. 23 -- The Army's highest-ranking officer said Friday that he was unsure whether the U.S. military would capture or kill Osama bin Laden, adding, "I don't know that it's all that important, frankly."

"So we get him, and then what?" asked Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the outgoing Army chief of staff, at a Rotary Club of Fort Worth luncheon. "There's a temporary feeling of goodness, but in the long run, we may make him bigger than he is today.

"He's hiding, and he knows we're looking for him. We know he's not particularly effective. I'm not sure there's that great of a return" on capturing or killing bin Laden.

I am sure that this is exactly how the FBI feels about their 'ten most wanted' list.

"Relax!!! Why bother? It's not worth it! Let's see we get ALL these guys? Then... what? Would it stop crime? Not at all. We'd just feel good about ourselves for a little while then... will have to fill up the list with another 'ten most wanted'."

Of course, the FBI would NOT make such statements. This is why this was NOT a war and it should not be made into a war. It should have been a political, police and, maybe a special ops-predator kind of operation. 100,000 angry armed anti-American Muslim men would be minding their business today and maybe saving for a satellite dish so that they too can watch 'gay makeover' on the teeve rather than spend their money on Kalashnikovs and ammo and spend their time training for martyrdom.

Alright. Let's assume that we 'cut and run' and that we don't need to spend hundreds of billions more half a world away from our borders and no one needs to die there no more. We're gone and the anti-Americans take over the country - which they will when we leave whether we cut and run or we stay there for 2 more years or until the job gets done.

So, our boys are home and 'they' (the baddies) control Iraq. And? Exactly how are 'they' going to be able to harm 'us'? Are they going to send an expeditionary force to occupy and liberate us? Are they going to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles with nukes on them, like the North Koreans do these days? Will they send a few stealth bombers and carpet-bomb Brooklyn? Are they planning to blockade us so we can't get food and supplies and we starve?

Let's try to figure out how these bad people are going to harm us from their base in Iraq.

I lived the first half of my life on the other side of the iron curtain. Very, very few people would dare speak out their mind in public there and then, even though many or most would do so in private. Almost everyone absolutely HATED 'the dissidents' for what they were (desperately courageous people) and for what they were doing (putting everyone else to shame). The quick and harsh punishment of the dissident was needed to confirm and validate everyone else's cowardly decision to submit to the authority. They would tell each other that their accepting oppression and their submission were the rational, safe and possibly even the noble and right thing to do, given the circumstances.

So they would openly cheer the powerful during the day and maybe drink themselves into a stupor or beat up their wives and children at night, so that they could relieve themselves of some of the accumulated tension and humiliation.