Posted on 09/20/2001 5:45:01 AM PDT by janus
British troops quit Balkans to aid US
by Robert Fox
British troops are to be pulled out of Macedonia by next week to prepare to support the American operation codenamed Infinite Justice.
A key British planning headquarters is being pulled back from an exercise in Oman to help prepare the British contribution to the operation.
Yesterday US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the deployment of 100 American combat aircraft to the Gulf region. The huge USS Theodore Roosevelt is heading towards the eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea to link up with two carriers already on station in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
The headquarters of 16 Air Assault Brigade and most of the 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment are due to leave Macedonia next week. They have been engaged in Operation Essential Harvest to collect weapons from Albanian rebels.
"They have done a good job, and it is all but done," a senior military source said yesterday. "They are now needed elsewhere for other things." 16 Air Assault Brigade is the leading rapid response formation in the British Army and comprises the bulk of the Parachute Regiment with their specialised airborne engineering, artillery and signals units.
Much of the Royal Marines' 3 Commando Brigade, the other main rapid response formation, is already in the Gulf region, engaged in a major exercise in Oman. The Joint Forces forward planning headquarters, commanded by Brigadier Peter Wall, is being pulled back from the Oman exercise to work on plans for British forces involved in Operation Infinite Justice.
So far British operational commanders have been given no details of the US operation and do not even know the precise targets. Commanders of British formations in the UK and the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps are expecting to be given the plans by the weekend.
The forwarding of some 100 US military planes to the Gulf, ordered yesterday, is seen as a first move in any operation against the Taliban in Afghanistan and possibly even Iraq.
It is being emphasised from Washington that this is just a preliminary move in a phased plan which will last at least five years. The whole campaign, of which Infinite Justice is a part, is now expected to span 10 years at least.
Among aircraft moving from the US are F15 Eagle and F16 Flying falcon fighter-bombers, B1 bombers, electronic surveillance planes and jammers, and refuelling tankers. B2 Stealth bombers may also be deployed but are capable of flying to Afghanistan from the US. The USS Theodore Roosevelt, one of the largest warships in commission, will join the USS Enterprise in the Arabian Sea and the USS Carl Vinson in the Indian Ocean. Together the three can deploy 225 aircraft.
Military sources in London and the US say they do not expect an outright assault on Afghanistan to try to snatch Osama bin Laden and his henchmen. States believed to be sponsoring or hosting the terror network associated with Bin Laden, like Sudan, Yemen, North Korea and Iraq, could also be the scene for overt or covert operations.
A main priority is to shore up General Musharraf in Pakistan who says his country is facing its worst crisis in 30 years with pressure from refugees from Afghanistan and extremist supporters of Bin Laden at home. Anxiety is growing about the flood of refugees to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and the potential for conflict in Uzbekistan.
Of course, the Stages of Death are also applicable Stages of Grief, possibly helpful in alleviating the horror and sorrow and fear. But Infinite Justice will continue the cycle of violence, not allay it. It is the word infinite that reveals the false motive, the hubris, the total lack of self-introspection or -reproach.
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