Most of that defeatist talk reflected the sentiment that things didn’t seem to be going so well. Even those commentators and politicians normally associated with the right, writer Charles Krauthammer and Senator John McCain to name but a few were asking questions. Krauthammer wrote on October 30th that the war was being fought, “with half-measures” and that after three weeks we still hadn’t bombed the Taleban’s front lines.
They were right of course but it wasn’t their arguments that prompted the military to bring out the Daisy Cutters, and B-52’s but a sound and prudent war plan. At week three of the war we were using half-measures. Now in week five the Taleban is retreat.
Now the debate has shifted to whether the Northern Alliance should enter the capital. The commentators and even the coalition leaders were, as of Sunday, trying to prevent the Northern Alliance from marching into Kabul. The US and Pakistan’s President Musharraf do not want the Alliance to take Kabul on the basis of past atrocities and the problems that a lack of Pashtuns in the Alliance would have on the future of the war.
These are things worth worrying about. However the war must be won and the members of Osama bin Laden’s terror network found before there is any planning about the future. The United Nations and Secretary of State Powell are working hard to bring the political in line with the military realities. But liberating cities under Taleban control is a start. In Mazur-i-Sharif women are walking in the streets without veils for the first time in two years. Tribal leaders are already getting television stations up and running and are discussing the possibility of reopening schools. So far groups are putting aside their differences and learning to operate together.
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