Posted on 06/30/2002 10:18:44 AM PDT by yankeedame
Britain denounces 'blundering' US hunt for al-Qaeda
By Christina Lamb in London
July 1 2002
Senior officials in the British Prime Minister's office have delivered an astonishing attack on America's handling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda fugitives.
They say that troops conducting house-to-house searches in tribal areas of Pakistan along the Afghan border were "blundering", with a "march-in-shooting" approach. The US action was "backfiring", increasing support for terrorism and making it harder to catch bin Laden and his henchmen.
"The Americans think they and the Pakistanis can just march in shooting," an official closely involved in the war said. "They don't understand the sensitivities. We have years of experience in the tribal areas and we know using force will just backfire and increase sympathy for al-Qaeda."
The comments will further strain Anglo-US relations after a week of tensions over Middle East policy and Washington's introduction of steel tariffs.
The scale of the divide was shown by scathing comments by one British minister involved in steel negotiations.
"You have to remember that this is a rather unpleasant administration," the minister said. "... A full-blooded attempt to forge a relationship with it hasn't changed its fundamental nature - protectionist and self-interested."
A spokesman for US Central Command rejected the criticism.
"Our entire approach to removing the Taliban from power and eliminating the al-Qaeda threat has been sensitive to regional issues," he said. "We have liaison teams co-ordinating with the Pakistani military but have not been directly involved in any operations in that area."
Although officially part of Pakistan, the tribal areas have governed themselves since British colonial times. Disputes with the outside have traditionally been resolved through negotiation between political agents and their chiefs, usually involving large amounts of money. The people of the tribal areas are Pathans, like the Taliban.
The Pentagon says at least 1000 al-Qaeda crossed into the tribal areas late last year, possibly including bin Laden, and are regrouping.
Under United States pressure, Pakistan agreed to deploy 12,000 troops in April, backed by US Green Berets, CIA paramilitaries and British special forces.
Tribal leaders were furious. A leading member of the powerful Yusufzai tribe, Arsallah Hoti, said: "This is not how things work here. They have been raiding our villages with less than an hour's notice and even burst in on a wedding because they heard the traditional firing of Kalashnikovs and assumed it was al-Qaeda."
Visiting London last week, Mr Hoti said: "I think people who were ambivalent to al-Qaeda in the tribal areas are now supporting them. A lot more could have been achieved through the old colonial way of negotiations rather than the American way of bombing and killing."
A US-Canadian investigation has found two American fighter pilots responsible for a "friendly fire" bombing in Afghanistan on April 17 that killed four Canadian soldiers and wounded eight.
(The Telegraph London and AFP)
Sounds good to me.
And they do NOT like it that this war is exposing the the trashing of the British military by the Labour Party, and the proliferation of terrorists in Britain, the deterioration of their infrastructure, the miserable failure of their National Health AND rising crime in Britain under the Labour party.
People are complaining about the Labour Party. That bunch of know-nothings are hoping to start a Brit vs America fight. To show the antiAmerican Europeans they are on the Europeans side, not matter what Tony boy says!
Perchance the limey jackass who made those comments would care to next comment upon the "sensitivities" involved in the near total massacres inflicted by the Afghans upon the British soldiers and citizens in the Khyber Pass in 1842 and next again at Kabul in 1879. Then again, morons usually have very short historical perspectives. Never mind.
Second, for British officials to say of the Pakistanis "They don't understand the sensitivities. We have years of experience in the tribal areas and we know using force will just backfire and increase sympathy for al-Qaeda" is asinine. It ain't your empire anymore, Sahib.
How long do you think we will be able to remain there?
Turkey gets the kudos and Britain gets the bill. Does anything here sound stupid to you?
1940 was a bad time - thank god for the Russian front.
Does anything here sound stupid to you?Picking up for the Brits does.. Why we would get suckered in to help is beyond me. If we couldn't afford it, then we should watch and comment like the rest of them.
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