WASHINGTON – The mountains of Tora Bora remind me of giant anthills. On the surface, arid soil. Underneath, a maze of tunnels, in which al-Qaida fighters scurry around like angry soldier ants, defending the queen from invading forces.
But the queen, Osama bin Laden, has escaped the nest and may live long enough to recolonize and spawn new anti-American terrorist cells.
If we don’t find bin Laden soon – and chances are slim that we will, since we don’t have a clue where he is right now – blame our commander in chief and his politically correct war.
As I opined in this space Nov. 7, President Bush chewed up the precious first three
weeks of the war courting and dining Muslims.
That worked swell: They stole and poisoned our food (after we actually delayed bombing to drop the
rations); aided and abetted the Taliban; burned Uncle Sam in effigy; aired bin Laden propaganda videos; and refused to let us use their air bases. They even named their babies Osama.
Meanwhile, their hero found better places to hide.
Phase 2 enlisted Muslim surrogates to fight our war
for us. That worked great, too. After taking the
booty, they let our enemy – but apparently not really
theirs – escape to Pakistan, along with his
commanders. The Taliban leader, Mohammed Omar, also
got a pass, after we foolishly let alliance leaders
negotiate the terms of his surrender. Those terms
included a new hideout and some 400 bodyguards.
Now we’re entering Phase 3: Manhunt for the
escapees. Only, American “infidels” won’t be doing the
hunting, and certainly not the killing. Since the
quarry is hiding in another Muslim country, we’ll rely
again on Muslim surrogates to bag it.
Don’t hold your breath. Many Pakistanis revere bin
Laden and would jump at the chance to shelter him. And
the same Paki military and intelligence agency that’s
supposed to be sealing off the border and finding
escapees for us is largely pro-Taliban.
No matter. The ticker-tape parade is probably still in
the works, same route as the Gulf war celebration.
Another Mideast “victory” prematurely declared.
Face it, the Bushes, who have Arab oil interests, are
the wrong people to be winning – I mean, really
winning – Arab wars (and don’t think Daddy’s not in
the loop this go-round). Being guilty rich white
patricians, they’re also petrified of being called
bigots, thus the hypersensitivity to Muslims the world
over.
Oh, I can hear the jeers now from the Bush
cheerleading section: You’re a jerk, Sperry, a
naysayer, just like the rest of the liberal media. The
Taliban used to control about 90 percent of
Afghanistan. Now they’re on the run. Dubya kicked
butt!
Reality check: Scattering does not mean defeating. And
on the run does not mean dead, or imprisoned, and not
able to terrorize Americans ever again. Recall that Bushies also declared victory when Iraqi troops ran
back to Baghdad. Ten years later, we’re still talking about sacking
Baghdad. Some victory.
The original goal of the war on terrorism was simply
to kill the terrorists who killed us. Bushies are
gloating over accomplishing a goal that was made up
along the way. It never was about liberating
Afghanistan and propping up a new form of government
there – unless, that is, Bush and a certain
Arab-American security adviser of his still have a
secret interest in building an oil pipeline across
Afghanistan. If you can find such an objective in
Bush’s speech to Congress, let me know. Otherwise, the
administration is guilty of mission creep before even
finishing the core mission.
As long as bin Laden and Omar remain at large and can
issue fatwahs, we are still in danger. Until you see
them dead or behind bars, hold the ticker tape.
As it stands now, all we’ve done is taken a stick and
stirred up a big anthill halfway around the world,
without killing the queen. We’ve killed a lot of
worker ants, yes, but we’ve merely scattered their
leaders. These terrorists are nomads. Pushing them out
of Kabul hardly fazed them. Like ants, they can
recolonize practically overnight.
If we don’t let our own troops exterminate them – on the ground rather than from the air – they will recolonize; and like stirred-up red ants, they will be
angrier than ever at the “Great Satan” and “infidel
invaders.”
So far, largely for political reasons, we haven’t let
our special forces do the exterminating, even though
they’ve trained for this for years.
A reconnaissance specialist who just returned from
Afghanistan told me that special ops aren’t doing much
more than tagging along with alliance forces and
calling in bombing coordinates for them.
Mr. President, stop subcontracting out America’s war.
Set U.S. forces loose on those remaining unsearched
Afghanistan caves and redoubts that may be sheltering
Omar. And deploy them to those Pakistan border towns
that may be harboring bin Laden.
Related columns:
Please, Mr. Bush, no Basrah this time
