Not much is offered here:
A year ago, President Bush said he wanted Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive." Alas, last week's audiotape underscores that more than 400 days after the 9/11 attacks, he continues to elude us.
Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle has seized on this to question the course of the war on terror, suggesting that we have made little progress if Bin Laden and most other top al-Qaida leaders remain at large. Is Daschle right? Or is the administration right that our efforts in Afghanistan, at home, and elsewhere indicate that we are winning the war?

O'Hanlon’s piece is lacking, offering little more than a black and white concept, leaving out the miles of gray. We are either winning, or not. Bin Laden is either alive, or not. I see both of these as up-in-the-air topics, with inconclusive evidence for both topics, and the evidence can still fall either way. It is also apparent that any military strategist who does not see, consider, and calculate this gray is bound to lose in any conflict. The U.S. is aware of this, which is why we have so many contingency plans, most of which would be looked upon as open war crimes to the international community, but that’s called reality.

What about the future? Bin Laden is probably on the run, perhaps in the tribal regions of northwest Pakistan, back in Yemen, or (less likely) in a Pakistani city. His health may be poor. He may be largely cut off from his fellow al-Qaida leaders.

U.S. intelligence analysis finds that an audio recording broadcast last week was almost certainly the voice of al-Qai’da leader bin Laden, so he may also still be very dead.

An FYI, Raoul:
Bin Laden remains at the top of the most wanted list, and the conditions are still “dead or alive,” and with the media harping about him being more surely alive than dead, he is again of great interest. Reading back through reports in Afghanistan and Pakistan, however, you might find that the search for bin Laden never halted, and in fact was stepped up a number of times since the bombing campaign of Tora Bora, north of Shahi Kot, where it had been assumed bin Laden met his maker.

The government’s resolution has not changed, and neither has the target,
Dan