*** War on Terror

Must-read Newsweek article about how Bin Laden recently informed the Taliban that he's pulling Al Queda resources from Afghanistan for use in Iraq. This article is noteworthy for a number of reasons in addition to this headline. For example:

• The Taliban are openly speaking to the media, and openly operating in Pakistan. This highlights what a hollow victory we achieved when the Northern Alliance toppled Kabul.
  
• The article states that Bin Laden is reducing payment to the Taliban from $3 million to $1.5 million per month. Apparently Al Queda's funding has been affected by the US crackdown, which is at least some good news.
  
• This is also good news for for the people of Afghanistan. According to the article, Mullah Omar is pissed.

Still, my main take away from this is that it shows how dumb it was to open up Iraq as a front in the War on Terror. Even if you believe Bushy's theory that it's good news to be fighting terrorists in the Middle East rather than the US, shouldn't we be fighting this battle on our own terms? If we had limited the war to one front, in Afghanistan, maybe we could have prevailed. Now that we have destroyed Iraq and created a second front, however, victory looks far from certain.
- posted by David @ 2:32 PM