And take turns making the calls.
Posted on 09/25/2001 11:47:14 PM PDT by MadIvan
TONY BLAIR cleared the way yesterday for military strikes against Afghanistan within days by declaring that the Taliban would become an enemy in the battle against terrorism unless they handed over Osama bin Laden.
Standing in the Downing Street garden, he said that America and its allies had the power to do "very considerable damage" to the Taliban. "Military conflict there will be unless the Taliban change and respond to the ultimatum given to them," said Mr Blair.
As diplomats said that military action was likely to begin "within a week", Downing Street announced that Parliament would be recalled for one day on Thursday of next week. Political leaders had already indicated that MPs should be brought back only after action had started.
Mr Blair's ultimatum, delivered 24 hours after he briefed Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative leader, and senior parliamentarians, was seen as preparing British and international opinion for hostilities.
The Taliban were further isolated yesterday when Saudi Arabia severed all relations with the regime. Last night, a Saudi official said that Afghan diplomats had been given 48 hours to leave the country.
This leaves only Pakistan maintaining diplomatic links with Kabul since the United Arab Emirates cut ties at the weekend. President Bush, whom Mr Blair visited last week and vowed to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with in the fight against terrorism, praised the Saudis' "wise step".
Only President Musharraf of Pakistan, the traditional backer of the Taliban, said that his country would maintain contact because "at least there should be one country who ought to be able to have an access to them".
In a message to the American people, the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, stepped up his defiance. He said the attacks on New York and Washington were to avenge US "cruelty" towards Muslim countries.
"The American people must know that the sad events that took place recently were the result of their government's wrong policies. Your government is perpetrating all sorts of atrocities in Muslim countries. Instead of supporting your government's policies you should urge your government to reconsider their wrong and cruel policies."
He added, without claiming to know who was responsible: "The recent sad event in America was the result of these cruel policies and was meant to avenge this cruelty."
Mr Blair said the Taliban knew what it had to do. If it stood in the way of bringing bin Laden to account, it would be "every bit our enemy" as bin Laden himself. "Our enemy's friend becomes our enemy too," he said in his strongest warning yet that the Taliban would be toppled unless it agreed to hand over bin Laden.
He described the Taliban as a regime "founded on fear and funded largely by drugs and crime" where poverty and illness were endemic and women's rights "non-existent".
Mr Blair emphasised the unity of the coalition lined up against Afghanistan. He said military action would be directed at the Taliban and not at the ordinary people of Afghanistan and promised that Britain would help efforts to deliver food to Afghan refugees to avert a winter crisis.
The Prime Minister called his unscheduled press conference after a day of non-stop diplomacy aimed at securing international and domestic political backing for military action. The most significant breakthrough came late on Monday with President Putin's announcement that Russia would share intelligence with the West and help the opposition Northern Alliance in northern Afghanistan.
In a historic address to the Bundestag in Berlin, Mr Putin yesterday sought to capitalise on his gesture by calling on the West to welcome Russia back to the diplomatic top table.
Mr Blair did not state when the ultimatum to the Taliban would run out nor does the Government expect a positive response. But it was meant to increase the pressure on the regime and provide justification for America and Britain to take military action.
"We have the power to do very considerable damage to the Taliban regime, and any action we take will be directed towards the regime, and not the ordinary people of Afghanistan," he said.
As the world lined up behind the coalition, Abdul Sattar, Pakistan's foreign minister, warned against governments giving military aid to the Taliban's Northern Alliance opponents. He said: "We must not make the blunder of trying to foist a government on the people of Afghanistan."
His comments were seen as reflecting concern in Pakistan that Iran, an old enemy of the Taliban, might, after yesterday's visit by Jack Straw, have a greater say in the future of Islamabad's old client state.
Recognising the delicacy of Gen Musharraf's position, Mr Bush did not call on Pakistan to follow Saudi Arabia's lead and instructed his officials to moderate previous talk about overthrowing the Taliban.
The president said he wanted to "make sure that Pakistan is a stable country and that whatever consequences may occur as a result of actions we may or may not take, is one that we do the best we can to manage".
He called on Afghan citizens disenchanted with Taliban rule to help the US pursue bin Laden but added that he was not interested in "nation-building" or supplanting regimes. "We're focused on justice and we're going to get justice. It's going to take a while probably but I'm a patient man. Nothing will diminish my will and my determination."
The Prime Minister attempted to calm concerns that terrorists might be planning biological or chemical weapons attacks on Britain after the head of the World Health Organisation warned governments to prepare for possible attacks. He said there was no specific threat and it was important not to be "alarmist" about such possibilities.
Labour confirmed that its annual conference in Brighton next week would be cut short, finishing on Wednesday to enable MPs to return to Westminster. Mr Duncan Smith reaffirmed his "full backing" for the Government's support for America's efforts to bring the perpetrators of the World Trade Centre and Pentagon atrocities to justice. "They were attacks we simply cannot allow to go unpunished," he said.
I would love to wake up tomorrow and find the 101 Air Assault Division in Baghdad (surprise!) but I don't think it will happen.
Saddam cannot turn his back on Osama, however-and his time will come.
Persia is a different thing than "Iraq", "Pakistan", "Saudi Arabia" and other misguided Western inventions.
Persia has a 3500-year history, ON THAT TERRITORY, and probably has latent imperial ambitions that can be turned to our advantage.
Whether the government survives is of course another matter, but our record with changing Iranian governments (1953) and picking winners (1979) is poor.
Iraq and Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, could disappear from the map tomorrow and ina week no one would know or care.
And take turns making the calls.
IMHO,THE big reason you missed is Blair and his fellow socialists see this as a way to suck Bush into replacing Bubba on their march towards "The Third Way" world gooberment. A "World Declaration of War Against Terrorism" is a natural document to proclaim a ban on the private possession of weapons,and a PERFECT PR opportunity to try and push this home. IF they can suck Bush into this,imagine the immense pressure ALL these countries can bring on him/the US at one time to ban privately-owned firearms in America. I can see the national and international headlines now,"Bush asks for help fighing terrorism,yet refuses to even disarm American terrorists!"
Blair is a fascist who was happy being Bubba's buttboy. That should be all the information anyone needs to know about him.
BTW,I forgot to mention the obvious. People here in the US now are starting to be concerned about "National ID's". Wait until the EU gears up and joins forces with the new "Homeland Uber Alles Office" or whateverthehell they are calling it,and we find that the "National ID" cards we agreed to "in order to help fight terrorism" suddenly morph into "INTERNATIONAL ID cards." Gonna be just a bit too late to start bitching about it then,though.
Somebody needs to do a musical parody of "The Beat Goes On",and turn it into "The Third Way Marches On".
This is a GOOD thing from OUR point of view. Winter with snow and ice is hard on guerilla bands. That's all I am going to say on this subject.
Cuts them off from supplies? They have to travel by foot or light vehicle that can't navigate? What advantage to us? Don't we have to navigate? Airplanes have problems with the heavy cloud cover, no?
I have a theory that Osama bin Laden will "never be found" either. But in the same way as Jimmy Hoffa...
Making OBL simply vanish would be far more useful, in about 10 different ways, than openly killing/capturing him.
Not with high-tech instruments, no...
With the gear the US military has, you could land a helicopter on a particular tennis court in an impenetrable fog with the windows painted black.
The one thing I do NOT want to see in all of this is news stories. Face it guys n gals, when it hits the news, that means that somebody screwed up. And it usually means that that somebody is dead.
Let's all hope and pray that the next story we see on the Nightly News or Commie News Network is that the mission has been completed. No fanfare, no brass bands. Just the wiping of another piece of crud off our shoes. Then our SPECOPS community can fade back into the woodwork and get ready for the next one.
Ruck
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