January 17, 2004 - For the second time in three days the US base at Khost Airport was the target of a rocket attack as America’s forgotten war in Afghanistan winds on. The rocket attacks this week claimed no casualties but the death toll reached 100 in the guerilla war we have forgotten. The Bush Administration doesn’t talk about Afghanistan other than to call it a victory. After all we have handed an illusory sovereignty over to the Afghanis we installed. We have trained the new Afghani Army and induced allies to participate in the occupation.

But the Taliban that melted away while the troops arrived is still active with a secure haven in Pakistan – our presumed ally. Mohammad Omar is still out there, somewhere, directing the same kind of war he waged for ten years against the Red Army. Osama Bin Laden is still out there, somewhere on the margin directing the broader war he launched from his caves in the mountains. The writ of the regime we installed barely reaches into the neighborhoods of Kabul, much less the rest of the country. Despite the “victory” and the number of US troops being only a small fraction of the 125,000 engaged in Iraq the death count is 20% of that still mounting in the Iraqi theatre.

The Bush Administration does not speak of the continuing war in Afghanistan in which American soldiers die at a greater rate than do their comrades in Iraq. Unfortunately the media, and the Democratic opposition as well, follow the Administration’s lead and focus on the Iraqi opposition forgetting the unfinished business of the real war on terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Capturing Saddam, rebuilding the Iraqi oil industry, imposing a pseudo-democracy upon a people who demand real democracy has not diminished the threat of terrorist attacks at all. For all the Taliban enemy combatants confined in the cages at Gitmo Al Qaida has still been able to mount terrorist attacks in Morocco, in Bali, in Saudi Arabia, and in Istanbul. Still, we have not found the courage, the will, or the resources to smoke them out, round them up and bring them to justice.

Perhaps we need Al Qaida. Without Al Qaida operating out there how could we justify our pallet of Yellow, Orange and Red? Without Al Qaida would we be forced to include Blue and Green in the spectrum of our political discourse? Can there be any other explanation for our failure to say to our great friends in Pakistan what we said to the Taliban? Is it simply that Pakistan has something that the Taliban did not – its own nuclear capability? Or is it that the President’s re-election campaign demands a viable enemy out there, somewhere?

With our attention firmly focused on Baghdad the War on Terrorism has been diverted and each time we move to Orange from Yellow; each time we disrupt our lives in response to rumors of attacks; each time we put security first and liberty last Osama Bin Laden wins another round. His real weapon is not death and destruction. His real weapon is our own fear.