Jesse would be jealous

by David Grand
August 7, 2003

Jesse James, who along with his brother Frank, the Younger brothers and other gang members were the scourge of banks, stagecoaches and trains carrying gold for 16 years (from 1866 to 1882), would undoubtedly be envious in knowing that two modern-day desperadoes like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have a bounty on their heads of $10 million and $25 million, respectively, when $10,000 was the biggest reward offered for the James brothers capture, dead or alive.

But unlike those two desert rats, who are directly responsible for the deaths of untold thousands, Jesse and his gang did most of their killings on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War as members of William Quantrill's raiders, attacking communities in Kansas and Missouri, and shooting pro-Northern citizens and robbing mail coaches. (That was good preparation for his post-war life as an outlaw.)

And image-wise, Jesse was considered by ordinary people to be a Robin Hood, though how much giving to the poor the gang did is uncertain. By contrast, bin Laden and Saddam are demonized throughout the world, with only a hard-core of loyal supporters following their lead.

How long can they elude being captured or killed is anyone's guess. Intelligence officials believe bin Laden is hiding in a mountain region that straddles the Pakistan-Afghan border, which is pocketed with countless caves and secluded passes. And finding the cave he's in at any given time is like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack, even with the military's most sophisticated, tracking equipment

Saddam, on the other hand, is believed to be "hopping from house to house in a patch of Iraq known as the Sunni Triangle, where he still has support." But military sources say they will soon be shifting their focus from his home region to a swarth of northwestern Iraqi desert stretching to the Syrian border. And unless you have a hired Bedouin to guide you down the barely visible trails, you can get swallowed up in that immense sea of sand.

And if he tries to change his appearance to make himself look older by dyeing his hair gray or growing a beard as his sons did, it'll only fool those who'd only seen pictures of him or from a far distance. Plus, even if he wore a Halloween mask, those in his entourage- one or more of whom are most likely to betray him- would still recognize him by his voice and mannerisms.

Hopefully, they'll both be corralled before too long; and, in any event, well before the time it took to end the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's 17-year campaign of terror. However, if they're never found, so be it. For it won't change our commitment to bringing about a constitutional, democratic form of government in Iraq, or our continuing to root-out all al-Qaida cells.

As I previously indicated, I think their end will come about with someone in their inner circle betraying 'em and putting a bullet in their heads when they least expect it, much as Bob Ford, a member of the James' gang, did to Jesse when his back was turned. And like him, they'll beat a hasty path to collect their rewards. (Incidentally, I can't understand why the bounty for Saddam's head is more than double that of bin Laden's, since he's after all the one who personally masterminded the dastardly, unprovoked attack on 9/11, without any complicity on Saddam's part. And, moreover, he still represents a more real threat to this nation than Saddam ever did.

On that note, I've always felt that he "took the heat" for bin Laden, by serving as a ready-made scapegoat for 9/11. Americans were still seething two years after that most horrible day in our history, crying for vengeance against any evildoing Arab despot, and he fit the bill to a tee; and provided the administration, with the congress' acquiescence, the perfect pretext for launching a preemptive war against Iraq, and thereby re-channeling the pent-up wrath of angry Americans. But then again, that's only my opinion.