Bin Laden is now rooting for the Iraqis? If it's true it doesn't surprise me, and no, it doesn't change my belief that al-Qaeda hasn't had ties to Saddam. Look, I grew up in Boston -- specifically, the Italian neighborhood of East Boston -- and I lived through the busing years of the 1970s. Prior to busing, East Boston and South Boston were football rivals, and Eastie-Southie games were frequently accompanied by Eastie-Southie fights (and the fights were hardly limited to Thanksgiving day). But when busing came along, the fighting stopped because the neighborhoods decided they had common enemies: blacks, pro-busing liberals, Judge Arthur Garrity. I've always imagined that Bush's jihad would bring a lot of traditional rivals together -- united against America and the West. And that, I'm afraid, may well be precisely what's happening