History keeps repeating itself in Afghanistan. In December 2001, when the allies encircled al-Qaeda's craggy mountain retreat of Tora Bora, Osama bin Laden and his cronies slipped away, leaving foot soldiers as decoys for the bunker busters and special-ops bullets. Last month another opportunity to round up al-Qaeda terrorists was botched--this time by fighting among U.S. allies. Afghan fighters and some 2,000 Pakistani troops deployed to help hunt down al-Qaeda holdovers not far from Tora Bora instead turned their weapons on one another. By the time things calmed down, two weeks later, any terrorists there had slipped away.
The U.S. had...
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