AUSTIN, Texas -- Back from a month in Europe, I meant to begin
by suggesting it's time to start thinking outside the box. Then I got back
to Texas. The sign outside our neighborhood strip joint says, "Hot Babes,
Cold Beer, Nuke 'Em, GW." Actually, let's start by thinking.
Bush's "bomb them with butter" campaign in Afghanistan is a good
start. One step we might usefully ponder is announcing that Osama bin Laden,
when smoked out and rounded up, will be turned over to the World Court in
The Hague to be tried for crimes against humanity.
First, bin Laden and his terrorist network are guilty of crimes
against humanity; second, this would emphasize that it's the whole world
against the terrorists; third, we're more likely to get bin Laden that way.
The few extreme Arab states might hesitate to turn him over to the Great
Satan, but turning him over to the World Court would be much easier for
them. The government of Pakistan, in particular, which is between a rock and
hard place, would find this helpful -- and Pakistan is in a position to be
very useful to us.