ITs STILL A NEW KIND OF WAR, MR. OBAMA

It's like we’re sitting in a room with not one, but several ten thousand pound gorillas that everybody wishes really were not there. Iraq is not the “lost war” Democrats in Congress claimed it was two years ago, but Afghanistan might very well become so. Darfur is still an anti-Christian genocidal mess about which we continue to do nothing. Not much visible progress on the Somali pirate issue. There’s the nascent nuclear threat from Iran, and of course there’s the nascent nuclear threat from the Taliban.

Wait a minute – NUCLEAR THREAT FROM THE TALIBAN ? ? ?

That’s right; the Taliban insurgency in northwest Pakistan has obviously moved from the Latent and Incipient phase to Guerrilla Warfare and even limited War of Movement. These are technical terms used by professional military and political science types to describe the phases of an insurgency. Once an insurgent organization is established and starts its activities, it progresses through phases in its effort to overthrow the government.

If the Taliban has achieved the latter phase – War of Movement – then it is urgent that the Whitehouse get focused, fast. The target of this insurgency just so happens to possess nuclear arms.

In other words, the original casus belli for the 2003 invasion of Iraq – that Saddam Hussein actively sought to acquire nuclear/chemical/biological capabilities, and the risk that he might hand such weaponry over to our terrorist enemies was intolerable in a post- 9/11 world – has just been met; with the Taliban situation in Pakistan. Remember, there was overwhelming, near-unanimous bipartisan support for this rationale in 2003. Where is that same sense of urgency now?

If our new Commander-In-Chief has an actionable plan, he is yet to show any kind of original thinking, beyond handing our enemy captives the keys to their confinement facilities.

King’s bishop to Queen’s bishop 4; it’s your move, Mr. Obama.