U.S. General: Bombing Halted for Muslim Holy Day

Reuters via Yahoo! ^ | 10/12/2001

[MississippiMan]

Friday October 12 1:07 PM ET

U.S. General: Bombing Halted for Muslim Holy Day

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes on Friday stopped blasting at least some targets in Afghanistan (news - web sites) for a day in deference to the Muslim holy day, the top U.S. military officer said.

``We are not operating today ... as Friday is the Muslim holy day,'' Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a Pentagon (news - web sites) briefing.

He said the halt would involve ``preplanned'' fixed targets such as air fields but did not make clear if aircraft would continue to go after targets of opportunity like moving vehicles or convoys.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declined to say when strikes might resume after five straight days of bombing and cruise missile raids against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and al Qaeda guerrilla training camps.

Rumsfeld said the Taliban's military had been weakened and camps associated with the al Qaeda network of Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) destroyed.

``No,'' Rumsfeld replied when asked if he expected the Taliban to turn over bin Laden to the United States. Washington accuses him of masterminded devastating Sept. 11 attacks on America that left more than 5,000 people dead. President Bush (news - web sites) told the Taliban on Thursday night it was not too late to turn over bin Laden and his lieutenants.

[MississippiMan]

Yessir, we're out to win this thing, alright. Take a break. Have a picnic. Can't risk offending anyone with our war. I truly feel doomed when this is how our leaders choose to fight a war.

Flame me if you like, but this is positively idiotic to give the enemy a day of rest to move things, to hide things, to escape when it might not otherwise be possible. Idiotic.

MM

[Gadsden1st]

If we bomb them during holy day they won't love us.

[LibWhacker]

Nice guys finish last.

[wideawake]

Screw them and their fake holy day. Bomb them harder.

[Anonymous2]

our 'virtue' and muslim appeasement will be part of our downfall. insanity, no other word. visions of young elian being stormed by our own bozos on easter morning flashing through my mind. righteous anger and blood press. rising. must-take-meds. gotta go.

[SuperfluousMan]

This is absurd. Will Bush halt the bombings on Saturdays and Sundays too, in deference to our Christian and Jewish soldiers? If anything, this action suggests that we care more about these terrorist thugs than we do about our own men and women in uniform.

[dirtboy]

Yeah, we wouldn't want to interrupt the regularly scheduled Friday afternoon executions in Kabul...

[lavaroise]

1. Does he think our enemy will observe this holy day? That is a laughable and dangerous assumption and miscalculation of warfare.

2. If we are not fighting the whole of Islam but a bunch of extremists, then why sacrifice our holidays and not theirs?

3. If we were not attacking Islam, why would Islam be bothered indeed?

4. PC wars are for losers.

5. Let's look at the facts beyond what we believe: this is war against Islam, and we better not get PC about it.

[Brian Mosely]

Would our enmeies have such an enlightened respect for our beliefs...or would they ignore them and kill as many of us as they could, General?

[aomagrat]

This is a WAR dammit! We're going to have to offend somebody!

[mdittmar]

Maybe we'll get lucky and one of our crates of MRE's will land on a SAM site or a Taliban soldier.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

It ain't over Ahmed...

[Arkinsaw]

Damn, we gave the North Vietnamese safe havens but we didn't even give them a day off.

I think Osama should call up the Pentagon and ask for safe-havens like we gave the North Vietnamese. Its not fair that orientals get safe-havens and Islam only gets days off.

[Woodstock]

Oh this is just Great!!!!

We get anthrax and they get a break?

[jonatron]

OPERATION: Sensitive EAGLE

[sheltonmac]

The best strategy, it seems, would be for the Taliban to come up with a total of 365 Muslim holy days. 366 on Leap Year.

[NautiNurse]

At first I thought this story was propaganda.

It says only fixed target bombing will be halted for the holy day. Moving targets (troops, vehicles, etc.) are fair game. Who knows--maybe the enemy will think they are safe for the day and poke their heads out of their holes--surprise

[LibWhacker]

The ONLY reason I can think of not to hit them on a holy day is to lull them into thinking we won't. Then, when the time comes and they are all in their mosques praying for our destruction -- and every last vestige of the PC-ness which infects our body politic has been eradicated -- we simultaneously launch 10,000 bunker busters and Tomahawk missiles at every place of ragheadean worship in the mideast, killing nearly every single one of the insane SOBs in one fell swoop.

[paulsy]

i dissagree with all of you. it's not to appease the taliiban freaks, they're a lost cause. we'll get em' anyway, what big difference will it make if its 12 hours one side of noon or the other? besides, if they come out of their caves, we'll zap em' anyway, so relax.

this is being done to appease the majority moderate arabs a bit, in the same vein as food drops, etc. it's NOT about being "PC" either, you think this administration cares much at all about that? this is cunning manipulation and part of a larger propaganda campaign designed to pacify the afghani masses, and methinks it a good idea.