Foreign Confidential ™

Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader and former head of Al Qaeda-allied Afghanistan in September 2001--a man who should have been killed within days of the mega-attacks on the United States--says his organization is (a) winning the war to retake Afghanistan, (b) ready to negotiate the takeover pursuant to total U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and (c) already talking to the U.S. Click here for the story.

The fact that Omar is still alive, that the U.S. did not obliterate him and Osama Bin Laden and all their senior commanders and fighters--using any and all necessary weapons, including tactical nuclear weapons and napalm--is an utter disgrace, an insult to the memory of all those who lost their lives on 9/11, and a permanent stain on the honor of the U.S. The annihilation of Al Qaeda and the Taliban was the only morally acceptable response to the slaughter of some 3,000 innocent Americans on American soil.

But Bush blew it, paving the way for protracted war--and Obama's ascent to power.

By choosing not to deliver mass death to the enemy, Bush sadly set in motion a dynamic that is likely to lead to more mass death--in America.