Captured gunmen were led down the mountainside on mules. Many were crying. One faction paraded 18 men -- nine Arabs and nine Afghans -- through the streets of a village. Several appeared to be slightly injured, and one man's head was bandaged. About 200 residents watched silently, standing outside a village mosque. Manoghul, 23, cradled a Kalashnikov rifle. "When they were fighting us they were very proud men," he said. "Now they are weak. They cannot even look at us." Khudaifa, a 17-year-old gunman from Kuwait, said he came with his father to fight with al-Qaida, but that an American bomb killed his father and wounded him. "I haven't had a drink for two days. If you don't give me water I will die," Khudaifa begged. The prisoners said they knew of 64 more al-Qaida hiding in the forest.

Thirteen captured fighters -- four seriously wounded -- were held in the mountains by men under commander Haji Zahir. The captors said the group included two senior al-Qaida commanders, whose names weren't given. The men pleaded with their captors not to turn them over to U.S. forces. This is nothing more than rounding up the expended cannon fodder. They've gone from being tough guys and the lords of creation in their small pond to being pond scum. These are the suckers, the true believers who bought the "Allah and Osama" line and were left behind with no more thought than a worn-out pair of socks gets. There's no sympathy to be found for them -- and any that comes their way isn't deserved.

And what of Mullah Omar's fate? "He will be hanged," said Gullalai. "He sold out the country, he sold out our people, he sold out Islam," he said. "He has no place to hide."
The mullahs can be disposed of at a more liesurely pace now that Osama's out of the picture. They have no money and no supplies, unless Pakland has started helping them again, which would be inexpedient at this point. But my guess is that when most of his 500 men are shot up, he'll try to bolt again. (That's like guessing that the Yankees will be series contenders next year.)

Staying put in Pakland might be his best bet, at least for the short run. He owns half the government and most of the intel services, and he has a few "mini-Talibans" already up and running. The maulvis (mullahs) are up in arms over restrictions on the madrassahs. To replace al-Qaeda, he has Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the smaller jihadi groups in the west. A coup against Musharraf unless he falls into line with the fundos would be a fair likelihood. On the downside, war with India looks like it's just over the horizon because the eastern jihadis went too far with their assault on Parliament. And Pakland will lose a war with India.