Posted on 10/16/2001 6:25:02 PM PDT by blam
War Briefing: October 17
BY BRONWEN MADDOX, FOREIGN EDITOR
Playing for time as Kandahar crumbles
“TARGET Kandahar” was the mission yesterday. This is the sign of a military campaign sliding into the political mud.
It is not that Kandahar, the Taleban’s headquarters, is a ludicrous target. At least, it wasn’t 10 days ago when more of the town’s low, dusty buildings were still standing. The main targets for the gunships sent in yesterday are now troops, not facilities.
In military terms, Kandahar is probably no longer the richest target, but it is by far the diplomatically safest. The American coalition will not be strained — not much, anyway — by more strikes at the heart of its acknowledged enemy.
But while strikes near Jalalabad are continuing — some of the main training camps are thought to be there — they are more sensitive, threatening to deepen the stream of refugees heading for Pakistan.
And don’t mention the northern front line, which US bombers have scarcely touched. The Northern Alliance is now openly furious that the US will not clear away the Taleban forces, allowing it to charge into Kabul. Talks about making the capital a United Nations “open city” — to stop the Northern Alliance doing just that — are said to be moving “fast”. That means three months, if we’re lucky. But the urgency at least got Washington yesterday to stump up most of its UN arrears.
Yet deliberate US stalling in the north does bring one immediate payoff. While infuriating the Northern Alliance, it is forcing it to spend time exploring whether Taleban forces might defect. Defection is an indispensable part of the plan to find Osama bin Laden and bring down the Taleban.
Today’s reports from the front make an important point. One group of Northern Alliance fighters tells of creeping over to Taleban lines to share kebabs and get promises of imminent defections. Others have told of the ambivalence of Northern Alliance commanders when they see US bombs falling on their “enemies”, who include many friends.
If you are an optimist, you would say this points to a good chance of rapid defections as soon as the Taleban are clearly on the skids. But you do not need to be a pessimist to say the Northern Alliance is one of the messiest coalitions on which the US has ever rested its hopes.
Meanwhile, down south, so far there is absolutely no sign of the Taleban splitting. This may even be because the bombing has united them more passionately against the common enemy. But any hopes that the US could attack for a few days and see them scuttle for white flags have been dashed. As the US knows from recent experience, predicting the behaviour of an enemy under fire is hard. Washington got Saddam Hussein’s reactions about right, but read Slobodan Milosevic entirely wrongly: it expected him to back down more quickly, and then was taken by surprise when he caved in at the first moves to use ground troops.
But attacking Kandahar is simply playing for time, a holding pattern while the US frets over a plan for the north. It needs one fast, as the Northern Alliance isn’t going to hang about for the UN
"They said ...their bodies had been blown to pieces."
Good.
This wicked momma's got at least two Gatlings, and no one wants to be in its line of fire.
Man,would not want to be on the receiving end,having seen one of these in operation in nam.
And some 40mm Bofors guns, and a 105mm HOWITZER sticking out the side.
Reminds me of the WTC on a smaller scale. Well, we'll catch up with those numbers ... and surpass them.
Too bad these guys aren't in any shape for their 72 virgins. That's 72 virgins times 50 guys blown up. Gosh, Wally, that's 3600 virgins with nothing to do.
.....try this to hold you over! ;^).....
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