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Posted on 12/21/2001 4:56:18 AM PST by vrwc54

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; 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.

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