The Bush administration's repetition of the phrase "war on terror" or the word "terror" which peppered its pronouncements, is gradually fading, with the "The Long War" taking its place. President Bush's reference to South Korea, where we still have 37,000 troops after the armistice that ended the Korean War 54 years ago, is an example of what he envisions in a future Iraq.

The ongoing Afghan war is indicative of a long war for it began in the 1970's as a Cold War CIA operation designed to overthrow Afghanistan's Soviet-friendly government and lure an overextended Soviet Union into their "Vietnam". U.S. strategy was successful but the blowback—a CIA term for unforeseen consequences—led directly to Osama bin Laden and his fighters from the Arab, Muslim and Western world.

Five mujahideen groups and bin Laden's mostly foreign fighters, armed with the latest U.S. weapons, including the Stinger heat seeking missile, waged a devastating guerrilla war resulting in the Soviets' ignominious defeat. The principle that a foreign invasion of a Muslim country must be resisted by all Muslims and the fact that one of the two superpowers had been vanquished empowered the victors.

The United States walked away from the Afghan wreckage leaving the armed-to-the-teeth mujahideen to fight for control of the country. Millions of Afghan refugees left for Pakistan and beyond. Young Afghan refugees, some Pakistanis and others went to Saudi-funded madrassas. They were taught fundamentalist Salafi Islam and trained to take back their country from the guerrilla fighters that were destroying it.

They were the Taliban, students in Pashto, the language of the area that comprises south-west Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. The British tried twice to take over Afghanistan in the 19th Century. They were defeated both times but left a colonial legacy in the Durand Line that divided Pastoonistan, between India/Pakistan and Afghanistan. To this day, the Pashtun people cross the border between the two countries and regard themselves as Pashtuns first and Afghan or Pakistani second.

The Taliban defeated the mujahideen groups with the exception of the Northern Alliance who were isolated in the remote north east area. They brought order, but also repressive fundamentalist edicts that nullified the modernizing tendencies of the monarchy and communist regimes of the 1960's and early 1970's.

Osama bin Laden went back to Saudi Arabia after the Soviet withdrawal and resumed his family and business life. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, he offered his and his "Afghans'" services in driving Saddam out of Kuwait. He was rebuffed because the Saudi monarchy feared his popularity.

When the first Gulf War ended, the United States built permanent bases in Saudi Arabia breaking Defense Secretary Dick Cheney's promise that U.S. forces would not stay "a minute longer than they were needed." Osama agitated to have U.S. military bases closed and U.S. troops removed. His citizenship was revoked and he left for Sudan. He brought back his "Afghan" fighters from all over the Islamic world and al-Qaida was born.

U.S. pressure on Sudan forced him to move his fighters and training camp back to Afghanistan, where the CIA had supplied and supported him in the war against the Soviet occupier. Blowback has come full circle in that the United States has pulled its forces out of Saudi Arabia and bin Laden's goal has been accomplished.

Twenty eight years after U.S. covert action lured the Soviet Union into invading, war in Afghanistan continues on its deadly course. History repeated itself when the United States pulled its Special Forces out in the spring of 2002, months after the 9-11-inspired retaliatory invasion, to prepare for the attack on Iraq. Order had not been established. The warlords have taken back power and revived heroin production eliminated by the Taliban and it is now higher than ever at 85 percent of world supply.

Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, Afghanistan is a basket case, NATO member countries who have taken over security responsibility are disenchanted. The Taliban are regrouping and adapting to Iraq style guerrilla warfare. The "Long War" is fulfilling its promise.

Jim Mullins is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C., and a resident of Delray Beach.