The convoy have joined more than 20 British warships already in the Gulf for exercises with Oman set for mid-October
Posted on 09/30/2001 10:05:59 AM PDT by SlickWillard
The convoy have joined more than 20 British warships already in the Gulf for exercises with Oman set for mid-October |
It would be a serious blow in any military campaign against Afghanistan.
In an Arab-language newspaper, the Saudi defence minister is quoted as saying it will not accept the presence of a single soldier at war with Muslims or Arabs.
This is the first time a senior Saudi official has spoken about their role in any potential strikes against Afghanistan.
A second press report indicated a softer line: it said Saudi Arabia will allow the use of its airbases in military strikes - though not for back-up or logisitical support for land forces.
The reports come after British warships passed through the Suez Canal as part of a naval task force en route for exercises in the Gulf.
The vessels include the submarine HMS Triumph and the destroyer HMS Monmouth.
They have joined more than 20 British warships already in the Gulf for exercises with Oman set for mid-October.
Britain says the games were organised well before the terror attacks in the US.
Nevertheless, Britain has offered to participate in a coalition being assembled by Washington for a campaign against terrorists.
A total of 25 British ships are expected to be deployed in the Gulf region, along with ground troops and warplanes, in the biggest deployment of Royal Navy ships since the 1982 Falklands War.
Some 14,000 Omani soldiers and 24,000 British soldiers are expected to participate in the games, about 260 miles south of the Omani capital, Muscat.
Troops from both nations will practice quick deployment of air, land and sea forces, Omani officials have said.
In the wake of the attacks, the US has ordered the deployment of up to 130 warplanes and 2000 Marines to the Gulf.
A naval battle group led by the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt left the US on Wednesday, bound for the Mediterranean.
But if there befalls you grace from God, he would say—as though there were no friendship between you and him—‘O would that I had been with thee to attain this mighty happiness!’ Let those then fight in God’s way who sell this life of the world for the next; and whoso fights in God’s way, then, be he killed or be he victorious, we will give him a mighty hire.
What ails you that ye do not fight in God’s way, and for the weak men and women and children, who say, ‘Lord, bring us out of this town 19 of oppressive folk, and make for us from Thee a patron, and make for us from Thee a help?’
Those who believe fight in the way of God; and those who disbelieve fight in the way of Tâghût; fight ye then against the friends of Satan, verily, Satan’s tricks are weak.
Do ye not see those to whom it is said, ‘Restrain your hands, and be steadfast in prayer and give alms;’ and when it is prescribed for them to fight then a band of them fear men, as though it were the fear of God or a still stronger fear, and they say, ‘O our Lord! why hast thou prescribed for us to fight, couldst thou not let us abide till our near appointed time?’ Say, ‘The enjoyment of this world is but slight, and the next is better for him who fears;’—but they shall not be wronged a straw.
Why are ye two parties about the hypocrites, when God hath overturned them for what they earned? Do ye wish to guide those whom God hath led astray? Whoso God hath led astray ye shall not surely find for him a path. They would fain that ye misbelieve as they misbelieve, that ye might be alike; take ye not patrons from among them until they too flee in God’s way; but if they turn their backs, then seize them and kill them wheresoever ye find them, and take from them neither patron nor help,—save those who reach a people betwixt whom and you is an alliance—or who come to you while their bosoms prevent them from fighting you or fighting their own people. But had God pleased He would have given you dominion over them, and they would surely have fought you. But if they retire from you and do not fight you, and offer you peace,—then God hath given you no way against them.
Ye will find others who seek for quarter from you, and quarter from their own people; whenever they return to sedition they shall be overturned therein: but if they retire not from you, nor offer you peace, nor restrain their hands, then seize them and kill them wheresoever ye find them;—over these we have made for you manifest power.
And' let's get on with our reducing our dependency on Oil from this region ASAP.
I guess the Saudi's haven't yet reached our level of political correctness. To them, all Muslims are one, including terrorists, and must be kept from harm's way. What counts to them is not what a person does but whether he is a Muslim or not.
PC or not, we may well find that we are in a de-facto war with the entirety of Islam.
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