This is a good point. There is a difference however between the FARC and the Taliban. The Columbian mission was based on reliable intelligence and was conducted by Columbians, who know the local situation just as well as the terrorists. Even with those advantages it took six years to rescue Betancourt, so it obviously was not easy at all. The situation in Serbia is much the same, how much longer before Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are captured? Serbia is a much less difficult place to operate that the frontier tribal regions of Pakistan. However, that doesn’t mean the West shouldn’t be trying. And there is of course the embarrassing issue of whether the US had Bin Laden cornered in Tora Bora or not, and if so, how did they let him go?