Bin Laden's harangue reveals terrorists are losing the war

We don't know whether the latest and much-discussed Osama bin Laden tape was recorded recently. But the harangue is still a valuable reflection of the current Al-Qaida hierarchy that broadcast it to the world. First, things must be going very badly for the terrorists to propose a cease-fire: ``We don't mind offering you a long-term truce.''

In truth, the winning side does not ask for a reprieve. Losing autocrats -- whether the officers of the German army in the summer of 1918 or Hitler's cadre in the spring of 1945 -- always ``don't mind'' sending out peace feelers in the 11th hour to salvage their power before they lose it for good.

That is not to say there won't be more sacrifices to come. The battles of the Bulge and Okinawa were the most costly for Americans of World War II, and ended just months before the Nazi and Japanese capitulations. But examine Al-Qaida's plight. Bin Laden's home base in Afghanistan is lost for good. Elites of his terrorist organization are targeted from the air even in the supposedly safe Pakistani borderlands. Plenty of Al-Qaida terrorists have been killed in Iraq.

Europe is suddenly galvanizing against Islamic fascism. (France even mentions the unmentionable of targeting terrorist patrons with nuclear weapons.) India has no tolerance for Islamic extremism. The terrorist sponsors of Iran and Syria are finally becoming international pariahs. And thousands of Muslims have demonstrated in Lebanon and Jordan against terrorist bombers.

Second, Al-Qaida's talking points seem to derive from American anti-war rhetoric, as bin Laden and Co. desperately cling to the notion that our resolve may crumble.
So if American opponents of the present effort (whom bin Laden calls ``the sensible people'') adduce polls showing increasing anti-war sentiment, then bin Laden is likewise encouraged by ``polls calling for withdrawing the troops.''
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., alleges that ``Saddam's torture chambers reopened under new management: U.S. management.'' To bin Laden, there similarly ``is no difference'' between Saddam's jail and ours. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., derides Guantánamo as an American Stalinist or Hitlerian scandal. So bin Laden rages about Guantánamo.

Western journalists have written dozens of books comparing the United States to a rogue state that should apologize for its crimes. Bin Laden quotes them chapter and verse: ``It would be useful for you to read the book `Rogue State.' '' That is William Blum's anti-American screed that has soared in the Amazon.com ratings on bin Laden's recommendation.

This is the heart of the War on Terror (I wonder how that will be named in the history books?). I can't get away from the glorious notion that terrorists in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, when infantry and rockets started driving them from palaces into caves, started asking out loud, "What happened? What went wrong?" And, there was a touch of the prophet in the final pronouncement of the brothers Hussein (Usay or Udday or Ebay or whomever who said, "Yikes! I guess George Bush isn't bill clinton."

Until every last one of those bugs is squashed, the West simply can't trust the possibility of a Democrat pulling strings. Winston Churchill once said: If there must be just one Superpower left in the world, thank God it's the United States.

With the evil we face today, praise the Lord the Democrats aren't still in charge, for if they were, no one would be in charge.

. . . there are three lessons: Al-Qaida terrorists are losing. Their only hope is to mimic critics in the United States for ideas about derailing American military and diplomatic efforts that are destroying them. And as they go down, they play the victim in desperate search of pity and thus reprieve.

For most Americans -- nice try, but still no cigar.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON is a classicist and historian at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Ok, I know Hanson has a fleetload of credentials, and I note he warns there may well be costly sacrifices to come, but this commentary strikes me as a bit too sweet to swallow whole. Almost like tongue clucking.

"In truth, the winning side does not ask for a reprieve."

I like Hansen and I like this article.

However, Victor would have done well to remind Americans of Lyndon Johnson shortly after Tet 1968, when he announced he was not seeking re-election.

In that same speech he announced the beginning of peace talks in Paris and that bombing of North Vietnam was going to cease.

Huge blunders all. The turning point in the Vietnam War.

Today, we have a President who is capable of turning a deaf ear to critics like war hero Murtha and war hero Kerry. I'd venture to say Mr. Bush is learned in his history and knows what happens when one trieds to find substitutes for unconditional surrender.

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