Posted on 10/03/2001 10:18:54 AM PDT by PrivacyChampion
'US called off first attacks' by Jeremy Campbell in Washington The United States and Britain yesterday called off military strikes against terrorist targets in Afghanistan at the last minute.
Washington officials say today that a severe attack of last-minute cold feet by some key Arab members of the coalition caused President Bush to postpone the operation.
The waverers are Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Oman, and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is embarking on an urgent mission today to strengthen nerves in these countries.
Prime Minister Tony Blair is also about to undertake a hasty visit to the region. Saudi Arabia's support is especially vital, because Allied aircraft and commanders need its base facilities.
Two senior US officials have told reporters that until yesterday the Saudis were firm in their offer to provide assistance for strikes, including use of a state-of-the-art command centre at the Prince Royal Sultan Air Force Base.
Then the situation changed. One US official told Knight Newspapers: "That is no longer true. We fear there is something deeper here."
Mr Rumsfeld's trip to the Middle East is intended to mend these unexpected ruptures.
Downing Street, meanwhile, confirmed Mr Blair will be departing on a mission tomorrow but refused, on security grounds, to be drawn on any of the detail. Amid clear unease over the advance leaks of the trip, a spokesman dismissed all reports as "speculationî maintaining that some of the suggested calling points for the Prime Minister were simply wrong.
Mr Rumsfeld's tour, which includes Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt and Uzbekistan, is being compared to the stage-setting trip made by Dick Cheney, then Defence Secretary, to the Gulf just before the start of Desert Storm.
This time there is more at stake. Near the top of Mr Rumsfeld's list of priorities is to talk his way to an agreement with Uzbekistan, on the northern border of Afghanistan, to use the country as a staging area for the attack.
Uzbekistan is now regarded as a potential key asset in the coming showdown, but is rated the coalition's single most fragile link.
Highly attractive to the US are the number of abandoned air bases there, once used by the Soviet Union.
This will be Mr Rumsfeld's first face-to-face meeting with the ruling regime there. It has demanded that the US negotiate a complete Status of Forces Agreement before it will permit the use of its military bases - an unrealistic condition which could be tangled up in legal knots for years.
The trip, undertaken at the request of President Bush, is expected to last three days.
Oman, also skittish, is regarded as an important support base for a ground incursion. US special operations forces can be flown there and then put on amphibious invasion ships.
US officials are not sure whether this is a case of last minute jitters, or " something more serious".
One notable omission on Mr Rumsfeld's itinerary is Pakistan. "The last thing Pakistan needs is a high profile visit by a US Secretary of Defence," said a Pentagon official.
The country is contending with ferocious anti-American demonstrations, with Mr Bus burned in effigy and hordes shouting: "Death to America! Let Americans come here to be buried!"
Washington officials advised reporters not to assume military action was only hours away. They stressed that Mr Bush will act only when he is convinced, by Mr Rumsfeld and others, that "all the pieces are in place". Such action will come "at various stages and times", they said. The President himself told reporters there is "no calendar" for the start of hostilities.
I've played in football games, and I've fought in war. And, believe it or not, they're not the same. One's a game, one's for keeps. I could care less how Bush should coach a football team, but I don't want him running off half-cocked and causing unnecessary deaths of our own military personnel just to make Sunday morning quarterbacks feel good.
We need to drop a small scale neutron bomb on Ossam Bin-Laden and then not one member of our military would be at risk.
lol.
The WTC terrorists staged a raid on New York City in broad daylight during morning rush hour and managed to destroy an icon of the modern business world.
But US special forces need the dark of the moon to go into some dirt camps in a third world hell hole and twist necks and kick in computer screens...
[sighs] What you say may be true. But it sure sounds stupid.
The Islamic Revolution (or who ever is running this attack on the US) is operating creatively, zealously and boldly. If whatever segement of the Islamic world that is standing on the sidelines (and whatever other enemies America may have) sees that the US cannot or will not respond with equal boldness and creativity, our enemies will only be empowered by our timidity.
Mark W.
I don't understand why Jeremy Campbell was not allowed to launch an attack from Washington! lol
You got it Victor. Bush, unlike Clinton, is in this to win (I think he has defined that as bin Laden dead) and he's not worried about a temporary dip in his popularity caused by a strategy that results in several delays.
These delays may have several objectives - one might be to see if we can get bin Laden to make a break for a safer hole while the delay is on.....and then we catch him in the open.
Bush has some very scary smart people on his team - I have faith. George, "Lets Roll"...when your ready!
Precisely what I was thinking too. Bluff knowlege his location to see if you can get him to move. Sort of like using a bird dog to flush the covey.
You must be one of those parents who, upon walking in the room and seeing a broken lamp on the floor, punishes all your children for what one of them did.
You might feel good, but your kids will eventually hate you for such high-handedness.
Most Muslim states are not, in fact, against us, but many in those states are. And more will be if we follow your stupid strategy.
I've flown 460 combat missions. How many have you flown? I spent a year working on the G-3 Staff for a Marine Air Wing witch controlled 13,000 men, at the time. You possibly have more combat experience than I do, a great many do.
I know a great many people who have served in combat, and I know few who believe in running into a fight half-baked. You may well like the smell of your people rotting, I don't. I'd kill their extremists until the deserts turn green from the flow of their blood, but I won't unnecessarliy kill just anyone who is handy. I've personally seen such, and I know how counterproductive thoughtless murder is. In the end, you loose more of your own. Killing those who need to be killed is one thing, but killing innocents so that you enrage an entire social group of 1.2 billion people is nothing more than madness. Your apparent idea that you don't care if America is thrown into a deep depression speaks worlds about what you actually think of our country. Killing people appears to be your only goal. If it is, it ain't much of a goal. [This does not mean that I don't think many should be killed, it just means that I believe we have a president who knows what he's doing. And I support him.
I'm not like bin Laden, and you shouldn't be either.
"You are either with us or against us" - George W. Bush
Everything I've said on this thread has been in defense of George W. Bush. I'd appreciate it if you stopped implying that he doesn't know what he's doing.
Speaking of which..... There was a news story on FOX or MSNBC early today that the CIA had indications that an arms cache and some Al Quaeda assets had shown up in East Africa. There is some speculation that our friend may be trying to make a run for it to Sub-saharan Africa.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
So9
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