Posted on 12/01/2001 6:53:56 PM PST by NC Conservative
LONDON: The United States has asked Britain to help prepare military strikes against Somalia in the next phase of the global campaign against terrorism, the Sunday Telegraph reported here. US President George W Bush indicated last week that Somalia, Yemen and Sudan were likely to be the next targets in the war on terrorism because of their links to Al-Qaeda.
A team of British military top-brass which visited the US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, last week was asked to prepare a strategy for attacks on sites in Somalia, the paper said. They have now returned to London to discuss the plan with Ministry of Defence ministers, it added. According to the paper the request came as it emerged that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was funding a number of terrorist training camps in Somalia used by a militant Islamic group with close links to Al-Qaeda.
Hussein has agreed to help out the Al-Itihaad group in return for assistance from the Somali authorities in avoiding UN sanctions, the Sunday Telegraph said, quoting Iraqi dissident groups based here.
Bin Laden's network is known to have several training camps in southern Somalia and there has been speculation that he might head there if forced to flee Afghanistan.
Western intelligence agencies told the paper that members of Al-Itihaad had been trained at Al-Qaeda camps and that members of the group are suspected of involvement in the 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The Pentagon officials have confirmed that US naval ships have been stationed off the Somali coast to prevent Bin Laden gaining access to the country by sea, the paper said.
Another British Sunday paper reported that the next phase of the war was being planned not against Somalia, but Iraq. The US is planning to depose Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein by giving armed support to Iraqi opposition forces across the country, The Observer said.
Bush has ordered the CIA and top military personnel to draw up detailed plans for an operation that could begin in months, according to the paper. The plan is being opposed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other EU leaders and threatens to blow apart the fragile international coalition, the paper added. It envisages a combined operation with US bombers targeting key military installations with ground troops assisting opposition groups in the north and the south of the country.
Sources quoted in the paper say the trigger for such an invasion would be the refusal of Hussein to resubmit to weapons inspections under the UN sanctions imposed after the Gulf war.
Washington has been told that evidence it has presented on an Iraqi link to September 11 is at best circumstancial. "In the past week the Americans have shut up about Iraqi links to September 11 and have been talking a lot more about their weapons programme," said a European diplomat quoted in the paper.
But the Christian response is not to close your heart.
Perhaps they were silly or wrong in how they tried to do good, but at least they tried.
And as you have questioned my credibility, I surely can ask you what you are doing to show love and concern and to help these our brothers and sisters? You pretend to have the answer. What is it?
Another poster mentioned that the Lutherans brought in only teenage boys. Is that true? If so, what about the rest of the family unit? They are expendible?
I pretend nothing. Sometimes, there is no good answer. There are many things going wrong in the world. If we could wave a wand and make all the bad things go away, we would have it made, but we don't. The problem of "unintended consequences" can be a really big problem.
I have read that there are a lot of young boys that have been sold into slavery in Sudan. And I read that their families often times were the ones that sold them. I cannot say if these boys being brought here by the "dogooders" (your words) are slaves with no family ties anymore, but they might be.
Are you saying that these guys are the ones who have been sold into slavery?
True. But as Christians we do not have the choice of sitting around and doing nothing. Now, each Christian cannot do everything. Each listens and tries to do what God calls them to do.
You may be wrong. The Holy Spirit may have inspired these "dogooders" to do just what they did. I cannot say. But, possibly, you cannot either.
God's purposes transcend international borders. I may be a diehard patriot, but I do know that we can only ask God to support our country when we as a country try to do God's will.
I cannot say if these boys being brought here by the "dogooders" (your words) are slaves with no family ties anymore, but they might be.
Or maybe not. Maybe, the Lutherans are just acting on their own.
I believe that is pure supposition.
Your gift may be to defend the country, and thus you have highly developed dislike of what may constitute any possibly threat to our land.
But what has Christ enjoined us to do? What has he commanded us to do?
To love God,
To love our neighbor as ourselves.
To take the Gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
He hasn't said "but whatever you do, for Heaven's sake, don't bring them home."
The answer is "not many." Even the Taliban--a small minority within Afghanistan--weren't directly involved with terrorism in the U.S., being preoccupied with terrorizing their own people. Their involvement was in terms of giving al-Qaeda a safe haven to conduct their operations and training, in return for money.
Again, very few Afghans were part of the international terrorist conspiracy.
I think you'll find the same is true of Sudan, and Somalia, and even Iraq. Most of the terrorists are from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with a smattering of other Arab nations (maybe even Sudanese though I don't recall reading of any being part of that group).
I trust that your Sudanese guests have or are being investigated for legal immigration status, but I'd think they would be far, far down the list of potential terror suspects.
By "foolishness" I'm assuming you refer to "miscegenation."
Ja wohl! Und vy should not ve begin ze process uff "cleansing" ze precious shores uff der Vaterland? Der Volk demand ze Final Zolution!!!!
Sure, that's your fig leaf, but what you REALLY did was ASS-U-ME: 1) The kid has AIDS; and 2) The kids are having sex. You have no basis to ASS-U-ME either is the case.
And you threw in the "he has a WHITE girlfriend..." which was a dead giveaway. It wouldn't have occurred to me that the Sudanese kid was "black."
You didn't speak of a "country" which is simply a political construct, but of "racial groups," a very different thing.
And no, you can't "ASS-U-ME" any such thing. I can see it being a CONCERN, but that's the girl's parents' problem.
I am confident you needn't feel such fear over some "racial group" threatening your precious bodily fluids.
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