Donde esta el bin Laden?

International events of the past week have made it clear that while the Bush administration winds up for the tar-and-feathering of an oily old nemesis, the al-Qaida danger we did a really half-assed job of taking care of is catching up with us.

"We are sure al Qaeda is here. The Bali bomb blasts are related to al Qaeda, with the cooperation of local terrorists," Indonesian Defense Minister Matori Abdul Djalil told CNN Monday.

President Bush agreed that al Qaeda probably was behind this and other recent attacks.

So, all that time we were in Afghanistan, keeping the Red Cross from doing its work, bombing wedding parties, and possibly aiding and abetting war crimes we didn't accomplish anything?? Al-Qaida is still a threat? Then what was the point of bombing the crap out of that already bombed-out country?

I am brought back to a line from Al Gore's now famous proto-campaign speech a few weeks back.

The fact that we don't know where they are should not cause us to focus instead on some other enemy whose location may be easier to identify.

Not that I'm saying we should continue bombing the crap out of Afghanistan, far from it. But if the whole point of going to war (and that was a war, let's not play the Operation blahblahblah game) is to restore order by destroying those who put order at risk, and we have yet to do that, then we haven't done anything besides use up alot of explosives and kill a bunch of people.

And now we're ready to give the people of Iraq the same treatment.