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 he
battle of Tora Bora was such an opportunity for the U.S., not just
because Osama bin Laden might have been on the scene (which seems
debatable), but because it offered an unparalleled chance to kill
large numbers of al Qaeda.
It's much easier
to get them when they are concentrated and armed in a specific area
of Afghanistan, than when they are spread throughout Pakistan, the
Middle East, and even the West. This is why the battle of Shahikot
valley is so important.
The fundamental
fact is that this war is not about winning territory, but about
killing the members of a murderous gang. Any retreat or cute partial-surrender
deal that lets al Qaeda members escape is worthless to us.
And any deal
that lets us capture al Qaeda is also a less-than-desirable outcome
(although, obviously, we have to accept surrenders).
According to
the New York Times on Sunday, one reason that we want to
take DNA samples of Gitmo detainees is, essentially, so that we'll
know who they are when they get released and we catch them again.
Here's the
Times: "[Officials said the DNA samples] would be particularly
important because they now believed that many of the detainees would
have to be released before the government was certain who they are."
This is truly
astonishing.
The Wall
Street Journal had more encouraging news yesterday when it reported
that the Bush administration may consider mere membership in al
Qaeda a war crime. This makes a lot of sense, as
I've written in the past.
But if we are
instead just going to let them go, it raises the question of why
we took all the diplomatic heat involved in bringing these prisoners
to Gitmo in the first place.
Why not just
leave them to Gen. Dostum, who considers his prisoners well fed
if they are eating grass?
Yes, there
has been some intelligence gathered in Gitmo, at least from one
detainee, who reportedly told us of an impending attack in the U.S.
or Yemen.
But if the
price for this is letting hundreds of would-be murderers back out
into the world, one wonders if it's worth it.
Consider: The
terrorist we're going to release from Gitmo, or who escaped under
one of those partial Tora Bora deals, may be the terrorist involved
in some future plot to explode a nuclear weapon in the United States.
Here's a disturbing
bit from Sunday's Washington Post: "the intelligence
community . . .believes that al Qaeda could already control a stolen
Soviet-era tactical nuclear warhead or enough weapons-grade material
to fashion a functioning, if less efficient, atomic bomb."
The stakes,
then, are extremely high. This war is not about revenge (as some
conservatives have it), but about self-defense, the fundamental
basis of any morally justified war, which this so clearly is.
That's why
should pray for our men in Shahikot — pray for their safety,
pray for their families, and pray that they kill as many al Qaeda
as possible.
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