December 8, 2001 Diary: America Strikes Back

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Last Taliban stronghold falls
Saturday, December 8, 2001
Taliban fighters streamed out of Kandahar as the movement's final bastion fell Friday amid joy and gunfire. After years of tyrannical rule and terrorist support, the Taliban regime was over — but still under attack.

Kabul rejoices at fall of Taliban terror reign
Saturday, December 8, 2001
As the Taliban militia surrendered its last stronghold in Afghanistan Friday, few people here in the capital mourned the demise of the radical Islamic movement whose five-year rule brought them little but poverty, isolation and fear.

GOP prevails on anti-terror spending
Saturday, December 8, 2001
The Senate Friday killed a Democratic proposal to give President Bush $15 billion more than he wants for anti-terrorism programs and gave preliminary approval to a scaled-back compromise that meets the president's demands and delivers the White House a major victory.

Global change a constant struggle
Saturday, December 8, 2001
By Jim Hoagland
Washington Post Writers Group

The ancient Greeks created the myth of Sisyphus to remind themselves, and all who would follow, that triumph and setback often stroll hand in hand. Americans have the Bushes father and son to play that role.

U.S. forces pursue remnants of Taliban
Saturday, December 8, 2001
(Updated Saturday at 10:20 a.m.) U.S. forces are battling the remaining armed Taliban fighters as the war's commander ponders how to finish off the radical Islamic militia and its al-Qaida terrorist colleagues.

KBI helps handle terrorist attack follow-up queries
Saturday, December 8, 2001
Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation interviewed about two dozen young foreign men in the state who were among 5,000 federal authorities want to question throughout the nation.

Vigil honors victims of terrorists
Saturday, December 8, 2001
By Mindie Paget

Nearly three months removed from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it's still impossible for most people to shake the images of passenger jets smashing into the World Trade Center. Perhaps easier to forget — for those who didn't lose a loved one — are the individuals killed on the planes and in the buildings.

Afghanistan play ready for stage
Saturday, December 8, 2001
The title is tantalizingly topical — "Homebody/Kabul." Yet Tony Kushner's new play, set in 1998 and beyond, was written well before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. It is the culmination of a more than 20-year interest by the playwright in the tragic, tortured history of Afghanistan.

Bush vows victory on Pearl Harbor Day
Saturday, December 8, 2001
Aboard an aircraft carrier recently returned from war, President Bush told flag-waving sailors Friday they will help defeat terrorism without "a truce or a treaty." On the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he compared that day of infamy to the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings.

Tragedy spurs reconnections
Saturday, December 8, 2001
By Lenore Skenazy
New York Daily News

Gone but not forgotten. Often this is how we describe a loved one who has died. But for most of us, the phrase also could describe a loved who's very much alive but somehow dropped off our radar screen.

Who is the 'we' fighting terrorism?
Saturday, December 8, 2001
By Mark Shields
Creators Syndicate

It is not easy to concede that the critics of your adopted hometown were right after all: Washington, D.C., turns out, as charged, to be an elitist place. Here, the establishment — political and journalistic — inhabit a different country from those Americans whose lives are now at risk in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.

Now's no time to be lenient with Taliban or suspected terrorists
Saturday, December 8, 2001
By Dolph Simons Jr.

Random observations: Why is it so many Americans seem so concerned about how terrorists and their leaders in Afghanistan are treated when the fighting stops? Taliban leaders and terrorists associated

6News video report: Local residents remember Pearl Harbor attack
Saturday, December 8, 2001
Tina Terry reports on two local men who remember the attack on Pearl Harbor and see many similarities between the September 11 attacks and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

Christmas tree boosts morale of workers at World Trade Center site
Saturday, December 8, 2001
(Web Posted Saturday at 3:11 p.m.) The glow of a Christmas tree trimmed with angels and flags is bringing more than just holiday cheer to workers at the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center--it's making life bearable again.