Little did presidential candidate Fred Thompson realize that he had the answer to the riddle of "why didn't Bush cross the road to get bin Laden?" when he made what sounded like an off-the-cuff response to bin Laden's newest video tape.

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Fred Thompson, the newest addition to the Republican stable of presidential candidates, usually makes more horse sense when he's reading from a "Law and Order" script than when he's spouting memorized Republican talking points.

After the Osama bin Laden tape surfaced, Thompson was quoted as saying that bin Laden is "more symbolism than anything else."

Well, Freddie, me boy, you may be the genius of the year, and solved the long standing riddle of why George Bush abruptly halted the "dead or alive" hunt for bin Laden.

According to reports, we had bin Laden in our sights and it would not have taken a Dead-eye Dick or Annie Oakley to get the man.

But no!  Bush was in a race to veer off the bin Laden course in Tora Bora, to switch and bait us into Iraq and conquering Saddam Hussein. 

UN inspectors were ordered out of Iraq, Colon Powell went before the United Nations armed with a bottle full of lies, soldiers were pulled out of Afghanistan and we invaded Iraq.

In a thrice Bush had us up to our arses in alligators and in a mired swamp turned quagmire that would soon become a whirlpool of quicksand sucking up our blood, spirit and money.

Some people wondered out loud: Why? 

Most did not wonder and took the self-proclaimed War President at his word that this was the way to go.  The few dissenting whispers were drowned out by incessant sabre rattling and chanting of Saddam is linked to 9/11 and "if we don't git 'em in Iraq, we'll be fightin' 'em here."

"But, bin Laden was behind the 9/11 attacks," we tried to shout over the ever increasing crescendo of War on Iraq! War on Iraq! War on Iraq!

So, here we are today, bogged down in Iraq while bin Laden remains free and is sending us video tapes made in an undisclosed location, and we're still saying:  Why? 

Why did George Bush let bin Laden escape?  Why hasn't he been caught?

Then in walks good ol' boy Freddie on his first day of campaigning in his pursuit of the presidency and unwittingly gave us the answer:  "Osama bin Laden is more symbolism than anything else."

Osama bin Laden is George Bush's own private martyr, or symbol.  The "evil Muslem fundamentalist" martyr is in a symbiotic relationship with the "malevolent Christian fundamentalist" martyr. 

Each has set himself up as a martyr to his cause, yet neither is willing to go into a real battle and die for that cause.

Bin Laden hides in caves; Bush hides in airplanes 50,000 feet above the Earth, or behind walls protected by the military and Secret Service.

Neither will die for his cause, but each is willing...more than willing to conscript sacrificial lamb martyrs into the fray to die for their causes.  They ask others to do what they will not.  Bin Laden did once when he was younger; Bush never did. 

Bin Laden is Bush's reason for living.  His reason for keeping us in Iraq so he can pursue his dream and the desire of his friends to dominate and monopolize the world's supply of oil.

Don't be fooled by Bush telling a television reporter a long while back that he hardly thinks about bin Laden.  How could he not think about his martyred alter ego.  He thought about him all the time, knowing that bin Laden would surface again.

The war president's martyr is there for him to trot out at his pleasure, because if Bin Laden didn't show up on cue before a major election or right now, just in time for the sixth anniversary of 9/11, you can be sure that Bush would have managed to reminded us of him.    

This time bin Laden appeared right on cue to help Bush keep his war going in the face of ever-growing public discontent and wanting to bring the G.I.s home from Iraq, and a Congress that is trying to figure how to de-fund Bush's war.

At the same time the Bush/Patreas report is due any minute, amid a war of conflicting reports on the progress or lack there of in Iraq.  It doesn't matter how conflicted the reports are, Bush will use bin Laden and the threat of terrorism to do what he wants to do...no matter what.

Is it any surprise that bin Laden pops up now?  With Saddam dead, if bin Laden were dead, too, Bush wouldn't have a martyr to hoist on an altar of wickedness for an all too willing American public to kneel before and cringe in abject fear.

In Bush's perverse, sick mind and convoluted, tortured way of thinking he needs bin Laden to be his living martyr; his living symbol of all that Bush considers evil to use as bait for his continued war.

There is no such thing as a war on terror.  You cannot have a war on an emotion.  There is a fight against terrorists and their acts of terrorism, and it should be fought the way any criminal activity is fought, with sound, reliable information and dogged police work. 

Dead, bin Laden is no good to Bush whatsoever.  Dead, Bush can't say al-Qaida in Iraq.  Dead, Bush can't say war on "terror."  Dead, Bush can't say we have to fight al-Qaida in Iraq so we don't have to fight al-Qaida here.  Dead, Bush can't say, if we leave Iraq, al-Qaida will follow us here.  Dead, Bush doesn't have his martyr to wave as a symbol of fear. 

The devil is in the details, which may never be known.  The devil's devil is the devil of us all.  The world of martyrdom has taken on an entirely new meaning, bedeviling us who are trying to wrap our heads around it. 

Authors Bio:
Sandy Sand began her writing career while raising three children and doing public relations work for Women's American ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training). That led to a job as a reporter for the San Fernando Valley Chronicle, a weekly publication in Canoga Park, California. In conjunction with the Chronicle, she broadcast a tri-weekly, 10-minute newscast for KGOE AM. Following the closure of the Chronicle, Sand became the editor of the Tolucan Times and Canyon Crier newspapers in Burbank. She is currently a guest columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News and contributor to ronkayela.com