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Stardate 20011113.2149 (Crew, this is the Captain): I was going back this afternoon and rereading my older log entries from the ancient history of last week. A couple of them are quite striking, not because of my sterling writing but because of the articles they are connected to. For example,  The New Republic was afraid that the war would bog down because US ground troops had not yet become involved, in as much the Northern Alliance were not capable of winning any battles. President Bush may not have explicitly ruled out the use of ground forces, as his predecessor stupidly did in Kosovo, but his conduct of the war has sent the same lulling message: the United States will not put large numbers of troops on the ground. And how does the president propose to destroy Al Qaeda and the Taliban without them? He is relying on three other military instruments: airpower, proxies, and Special Operations forces. Two months since September 11, and one month since American bombing began, these three instruments have gotten us exactly nowhere.
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Of all the proxies the United States has enlisted over the past half-century, the Northern Alliance may be the least prepared to attain America's battlefield objectives. This week, after opposing the Northern Alliance's advance at the behest of the State Department for close to a month, the Bush administration is reportedly pressing for aggressive action. But the Northern Alliance remains far weaker than its adversary, it boasts far fewer troops, and lacks the determination of its foe. Winter is already arriving in northern Afghanistan, and with it the shuttering of the Alliance's supply routes. Its forces lack fuel and ammunition, remain pathetically divided, and seem in no rush to march to an American timetable. Now that's prescient. But not as much as this: "Its campaign is a failure," he said, referring to the United States. "Bush is defending this campaign and saying he has destroyed al Qaeda network and Taliban forces. ... They can lie as much as they want, but the whole world will find out, after the fierce destructions, who is the liar and who is telling the truth." That, my friends, was a quote from a top al Qaeda official named Ayman el-Zawahri. So, what with the "fierce destructions" behind us, who was the liar and who was telling the truth? (discuss)
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