Various members of our Military Infrastructure are starting to move forward with their own agendas, including the creation of a global command that would commit us to a War that may last longer than we do.

See Global command considered , by Rowan Scarborough for The Washington Times.

Giving Gen. Holland, or another four-star officer, command of the anti-terror war would avoid shifting responsibility from commander to commander as anti-terror operations move from region to region. The principal war-fighting commanders, known as commanders in chief, or cincs, are assigned their own turf, such as Pacific or European command.

The Bush administration is in the early stages of discussing covert intelligence operations or actions by U.S. commandos, or their foreign surrogates, around the world. These actions likely would not come until President Bush meets his first objective: ousting the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan and eliminating Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. The locations include:

• South America — The administration is collecting evidence of al Qaeda operatives involved in cocaine trafficking in Paraguay and Colombia. Islamic fundamentalist cells are operating in a tri-border area of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Evidence has been found of al Qaeda members in this no man's land, a senior administration official says.

• Philippines — Anti-government Abu Sayyaf terrorists are linked to bin Laden. Options discussed include an all-out conventional attack, the use of special operations troops or asking a surrogate to do the job. One candidate is Australia's Special Air Service, which has seen, or will see, action in Afghanistan.

  The United States believes the Philippines serves as home to scores of al Qaeda foot soldiers. Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo vigorously supports America's war on terrorism, but is cool to the idea of allowing U.S. commandos to fight Abu Sayyaf. The Philippines government does want American training and advanced equipment.

  U.S. military advisers have visited the Philippines to assess the capabilities of forces fighting the rebels.

• Iraq — Some Pentagon officials, notably Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, are advocating going after dictator Saddam Hussein. Saddam has not been directly linked to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, but the State Department lists Baghdad, which plotted to kill former President George Bush in 1993, as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Administration officials said several Rumsfeld aides believe the armed forces need an anti-terrorist commander for a war that may last for decades.

"This is a global war on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction," Gen. Richard B. Myers, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, told ABC this week. "So Afghanistan is only one small piece. So of course we're thinking very broadly. I would say since World War II we haven't thought this broadly about a campaign.

The Air Force general added, "I think this is going to be a long, hard-fought conflict. And it will be global in scale. And it won't be, as I mentioned earlier, it won't be just military. It's going to be all the instruments of our national power, with our friends and allies. And the fact that it could last several years or many years, or maybe our lifetimes, would not surprise me.