There's nothing like a few daisy-cutter bombs to take all the fun out of fundamentalism.

It's not going to be a very merry Ramadan in Afghanistan this year. If Dr. Seuss were still with us, he could do a Muslim version of the Grinch book: The Infidel Who Stole Ramadan.

It's amazing: Who would have thought that Costas Simitis and Kostas Karamanlis would hold out longer than the Taliban?

Now all his own people are in a rush to rat out Osama bin Laden. He's getting more dimes dropped on him than the Athens Stock Exchange.

Although how can you blame the Afghans - that $25 million reward will buy a lot of camels, not to mention a billy goat or two.

As terrible as it must be to be an al-Qaeda terrorist holed up in a cave waiting for the inevitable bunker buster, there's one group that's almost as broken-hearted about the string of Allied victories this week, and you know exactly who I mean.

The Greek Peace Patrol.

Yes, Aleka Papariga, this means you. Hey, Andreas Papandreou, who is losing the war?

Goodness! The evil forces of the west are defending women and talking about what a ``backward'' group the Taliban is. That's hate speech, man! Eurocentrism at it's worst!

It was OK for Putin to put down the Taliban. He used to be a Communist, so that makes him Good People. But the West, calling someone else ``backward''? How dare they!

Let's face it. The Greek Peaceniks were looking forward to use their own favorite word - quagmire. The peaceniks had laid in a bunch of new candles for the peace vigils. They'd tuned up their guitars so they could play ``Give Peace a Chance'' one more time. They'd dusted off the old packs of Marlboros and Camel Lights.

But now their guys, those brave Third World warriors, the Taliban, have folded like Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard back in 1991. These fiends are very tough when they're using poison gas on Kurds in northern Iraq, or holding a boxcutter to a stewardess' throat on Flight 11.

But now they're doing the old feets-don't-fail-me-now routine. They always do, when a real army shows up in the neighborhood.

It's been a tough week for your team, Greece. Maybe you can shake it off in the locker room at the soccer halftime break.

Happy Ramadan.

hhb

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