By James Donahue

Right after the 9-11 attack, when President Bush and his cabinet were planning an attack on Afghanistan to hit the Taliban and capture Osama bin Laden, we strongly suggested that a secret operation by an elite force of commandos would have been the more effective and efficient way of dealing with the problem.

It became known soon after the attack that Bin Laden and his terrorist network leaders hatched their plan to attack the World Trade Center and Pentagon in a Moslem temple in Kandahar, the capital city of Afghanistan.

In an editorial comment we suggested that if Bush had used his wits upon getting this information, which may have reached his office within hours of the attack, and sent a well-trained team of commandos into Kandahar, they might have not only captured Bin Laden and his key officers, but put a quick end to any further damage the Taliban might have caused.

Instead Bush launched an unending war in Afghanistan, after failing to research the long history of that area and learning why the Russians left Afghanistan after years of endless fighting guerilla forces that come out of the mountains, strike, then run off to hide again. And before achieving any goals in Afghanistan, Bush sent troops into Iraq on yet another endless mission, and he did it without justification.

The CBS News show 60 Minutes recently posted an interview with an anonymous man who has written a book about a mission of elite Delta Force commandos that went into Afghanistan right after 9-11 to do the very thing that was needed, root out Osama bin Laden and put an end to the gang that brought about the worst attack on American soil in the nation’s history. Had they been successful, we probably would not have launched either war and the world today would be looking much more kindly on us.

The leader of the Delta Force said Bin Laden was known to be hiding out at Tora Bora on a mountain ridge at 14,000 feet. He said the plan by the team was to drop down behind the mountains at Bin Laden’s back and come at him from the direction he would least expect. That plan was rejected by high officials in Washington.

The second idea to drop hundreds of landmines along the mountain passes to Pakistan to block Bin Laden’s retreat, and then attack straight on from helicopters also was turned down.

He said that left the only remaining option, which was a deadly frontal assault by 50 Delta Force members. The Afghan warlord who was acting as their guide in the high mountain terrain told them it was a bad plan. And he was right, it ended in failure.

The implications of this report, and stories that the Bush family had close ties with the Bin Laden family, suggest that there has been a conspiracy behind the 9-11 attack with strings reaching high levels of our government. That this team of trained commandos was blocked from catching the very man deemed responsible for orchestrating this event, apparently by orders from high levels, gives conspiracy theorists even more fodder with which to build their case.

As the Bush presidency thankfully draws to a conclusion we must demand an exposing of what really was going on in the White House and among the people Bush appointed to run this country since 2001. Is it possible that the wars, the corruption, the attacks on our constitutional freedoms and a financial collapse that is shaking world markets was all done by design? And all along we thought it was just bungling by a nincompoop who used a schemer like Karl Rove to get him in office and keep him there for eight destructive years.