LAHORE, PAKISTAN: A year and half after American Special Forces swept away the Taliban government ofAfghanistan, the group is alive and well - and spreading their ideology to new horizons - in neighboringPakistan. The apparent survival of the Taliban - most of their senior leaders now live in Pakistan - and thepersistence of their ideology point to the monumental failure of the American war on terror. The group'sre-emergence as a political force also bodes ill for civil liberties in Pakistan - a key US ally - and for theprospects for democratization in other Islamic countries.