War Strategy Critics Would Hit Harder Some Want To Hit Iraq Some may be frustrated that Taliban isn't toppled and bin Laden's still loose.(WORLD WAR ON TERRORISM)

Byline: BRIAN MITCHELL

Maybe it's because we've been there, done that too many times. Weeks of bombing haven't brought victory. The Northern Alliance is stalled. The Taliban is hanging tough. Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, and the end is nowhere in sight.

Now the critics are chiming in. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., calls for more ground troops. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., names Iraq as the next target. Dueling think tanks have assembled choirs to sing the chorus -- or add a few bars of counterpoint.

"It's clear what an ideal campaign would have been, and it's clear we didn't get there," said Chas Freeman, ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. "We are successfully rearranging the rubble in Afghanistan, but we have flushed no terrorists from the earth."

Gingrich's Views

Freeman spoke at the Cato Institute, where hawks and doves spoke to a packed house. Across town, the American Enterprise Institute treated another crowd to tight harmonies on a martial melody.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for a second front against Iraq. Ex-CIA Director James Woolsey wanted "all gloves off, every last one." AEI fellow Michael Ledeen lauded the U.S. as a "messianic country" at war with tyranny everywhere in the world.