YESTERDAY'S WAR

Yesterday's war - (yawn - yawn). Old news. We've sorted out Afghanistan and the Taliban and we've got Al-Qa'ida on the run. Or have we?

Secretary Powell will be standing in the UN and giving them proof positive of the actions of perfidious Iraq and it's weapons of mass destruction. He'll be giving the UN sufficient reasons why the US and it's coalition partners should launch an attack against Iraq. But he won't be mentioning Afghanistan and the "success" that the United States made of that "war". Nope. He won't be mentioning the collapse of peace in Afghanistan; he won't be mentioning the training camps set up by Arabs; he won't be mentioning the radio station set up by Al-Qa'ida in Afghanistan calling for a "holy war" against America; he won't be mentioning the US soldier killed in Khost: he won't be mentioning the 16 civilians blown up by a land mine outside Kandahar; he won't be mentioning the rape and female classroom burnings in the north of the country; he won't be boasting about the success in suppressing warlordism and drug-trafficking nor the success in the intelligence war in Afghanistan.

So what will he mention? Well, he'll talk about satellite pictures and intercepted telephone conversations that indicate that Iraqi scientists are up to their dirty tricks. Will he mention a proposed scenario of an Iraq divided into four zones of influence between the US, the UK, another unamed country and an Arab State?

No, Afghanistan was yesterday's war. It won't be long before western troops are pulled out of Afghanistan - unless of course the much-vaunted pipe line throught Afghanistan and Pakistan to an Indian Ocean Port is still a viable option.

The best Army in the world was beaten, twice, by the Afghans who possess the same armaments their descendents now possess (comparatively speaking) against an army of comparative status. But like the British in the 19th Century, will the the Americans lose the will to "civilise" a savage land?