All I fear we have done is awaken a sleeping giant, and fill him with a terrible
resolve.”
— Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, Imperial Japanese Navy Commander-in-Chief, on
the occasion of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 8 (Tokyo time), 1941
We had always assumed that World War III would open — and close — with a
mutually destructive volley of nuclear warheads. Instead, we may have seen
World War III begin with something as innocuous, we believed, as aircraft.
On Sept. 11, as everyone now knows, four planes were hijacked simultaneously
from East Coast airports. Two of these planes were piloted deliberately into the
side of the towers of the World Trade Center. Once the trademarks of the New
York skyline, the towers were gone in the blink of an eye. A third plane,
apparently meant to hit Air Force One or the White House, instead crashed into
the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania instead of whatever
target it was intended for, thanks to passengers who used the last moments of
their lives to retake the plane.
The war began Sunday with an odd opening volley: As we are conducting
strikes to try to halt the Taliban’s air power, we will soon be sending billions in
food and medical aid to the Afghan people themselves.
In the same vein that World War III opened unconventionally, it will most likely
be fought unconventionally. We had promised retaliation if the country of
Afghanistan did not turn over Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile millionaire
thought responsible for the attacks. The Taliban leadership has thus braced for
invasion. They’re gonna wait a while.
This will not be a “go in, fight our way to the Rhine and spank Hitler” style of
operation. If anything, it will probably resemble the exploits of Merrills’
Marauders in the Pacific, or the British Long-Range Desert Group and the
Special Air Service (still in existence today) against the Afrika Korps. Both were
small groups of commandos who fought a guerilla war, equipped, armed and
trained for long stretches in territory that is hostile in every sense of the word.

There will most likely not be an invasion of Afghanistan in the same way we
attacked Iraq during the Gulf War. History is against that course of action. The
main body of Afghanistan is mountainous, especially in the eastern districts,
including the capital of Kabul. This is territory that — while inhospitable — the
natives know like the back of their hands.
The Afghans put this knowledge to good use during the prolonged Soviet
invasion of 1979-1988. The Soviets were eaten alive by the Mujahideen
soldiers who were, ironically, armed by the United States. Those soldiers now
form the core of the army of the Taliban, Afghanistan’s de facto leadership.
So there will be no reinstatement of the draft.
We won’t have troops marching triumphantly down Kabul’s streets.
This will be a war unlike any other, and as secret a war as possible. We are
looking at a war fought from both the air and the shadows, where public
airstrikes to destroy the terrorists’ training and logistical capability will be merely
a supplement to a war of assassination and sabotage.
I have no illusions that we will “rid the world of evildoers,” as President Bush
suggested. What we can hope to do instead is perhaps make these men, who
are so willing to die for Allah or bin Laden or anyone else — as well as the men
and governments who bankroll them — think twice before trying something else
as audacious and outrageous as the attack on the World Trade Center.
All I can say is this: Now that we have gone in, we had better go straight for the
head of the snake and cut it off entirely. Bin Laden now knows that we are
coming after him. We had better take him out this time, because it’s almost
certain he will try to deny us a second chance.