Would it be taking it too far to suggest that perhaps the Bush Administration (i.e., Karl Roverer and Dick Cheney) have made certain Osama ben Ladn stays alive and uncaught because it serves the purpose of short-term political gain?

I don't think so -- that it's taking it too far.
Probably the opposite, the statement is too diffident and cautious.

That little thing of turning back when they almost had him still has the stink of corrupt purposes even these years later.

So we've gone from the old days when we got to pay (in blood and money) for what THEY (the rich and powerful) were afraid of, to where we get to pay for them to maintain boogeymen while they plunder our wealth for their own coffers, arrogant and cocksure and afraid of nothing.

(Ahh -- hubris -- the only protection we have against power-crazed monsters.)

A wise an peaceful man once said this:

"The duty of every aristocracy is to dig its own grave, and the sooner it does so, the better. The more it delays, the more it will fester and the worse death it will die."

Swami Vivekenanda

Since we are prohibited from taking any action in that direction by the laws passed to protect themselves from the public, we can only wait and watch and look hopefully to the day when that happens.