HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------The ground war
Everybody in - Fighting terrorism
From The Economist print edition
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America at last puts large numbers of men on the ground
NOBODY can accuse the Pentagon of being inconsistent. From the moment the bombing of Afghanistan began, it laid out the following priorities. First, liquidate the al-Qaeda network of Islamist terror, particularly its master, Osama bin Laden. Second, smash the Taliban regime which had been succouring that network. Last, and very much least (if, indeed, this can at all be described as a military objective), create a new order, more stable and humane, in Afghanistan.
From these strategic aims, certain tactics followed. From the start, it seemed clear that gouging the al-Qaeda fighters out of their hiding-places was a job that could be accomplished, in the end, only by soldiers on the ground. But such forces could not be deployed until aerial bombing had created a more or less safe environment in which American boots in substantial numbers could hit the ground.
Early on Monday, November 26th, it seemed that those conditions were finally met. Hundreds of marines had landed by helicopter at an airfield within striking distance of Kandahar, the Taliban's main stronghold and the only large city that remains under their control. The marines' four-hour flight from their ship in the Indian Ocean was the longest-range deployment in the history of the corps. Pentagon officials said the numbers on the ground would exceed 1,000 within a few days. The figure could rise quite rapidly to 10,000, judging by the number of marines, sailors and special forces that are being kept at the ready.
General Tommy Franks, who is in charge of the operation, said the American-led war effort would now be concentrating on two places in particular: Kandahar itself (where American bombers were raining destruction on a compound used by al-Qaeda and the Taliban) and the area between Kabul and the Khyber Pass, including a place called Tora Bora near Jalalabad where it was suspected that the leaders of al-Qaeda, perhaps including Mr bin Laden himself, may be hiding out.
But it was a daunting task, as the general admitted, to block the paths—between 150 and 170 of them—which al-Qaeda fighters may use to flee from Afghanistan to Pakistan. The Pakistanis were struggling manfully to block these routes to fighters, General Franks said, but only “within (their) capability”.
“America now owns a piece of Afghanistan,” said one American commander, incautiously |
As the marines dug themselves in, one of their commanders made the incautious comment that “America now owns a piece of Afghanistan.” In fact, possessing Afghanistan could hardly be further from America's intentions. The general's words were merely a moment of “exuberance”, explained Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, in his deadpan style, which combines blood-curdling threats to the Taliban with homely expressions such as “goodness gracious”, and “holy mackerel”.
As Mr Rumsfeld made clear, the Pentagon does not view occupying Afghanistan—even tiny pieces of it—as an end in itself. Ground forces will remain in place for as long, but only as long, as it takes to finish off al-Qaeda and its Taliban hosts. Nobody is saying how long that will be. John Pike of Global Security, a Washington defence consultancy, reckons that the Pentagon is preparing to fight on until the spring.
Some of the marines' immediate targets became clear within hours of their arrival. They attacked a Taliban armoured column and claimed to have destroyed several tanks. But despite their eagerness to strike such “targets of opportunity”—targets which were sometimes impossible to identify from the air—the marines' task did not include a frontal attack on Kandahar. The task of “softening up” that ancient walled city was still, at least for the time being, in the hands of America's air force. “Anybody who is there is going to wish they weren't,” was Mr Rumsfeld's grim warning to the al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders who were believed to be holed up in the town centre.
The marines' arrival in southern Afghanistan coincided with an all-but-final victory for anti-Taliban forces in the north. An uprising by Taliban fighters held captive at a fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif was put down by American bombing and some hard fighting on the ground. Several hundred rebel prisoners were killed after they had seized guns and rocket-propelled grenades from their guards (see article).
But the war in Afghanistan was by no means over. For one thing, the Taliban appeared to be digging in their heels in Kandahar. Their spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, was apparently well enough to send a radio message to his hard-pressed forces: “Do not vacate any areas.” A bloody showdown was also looming at the Taliban-controlled border town of Spin Boldak. There, surrender talks failed and attempts to wrest the place out of Taliban hands were complicated by the mistrust between four rival commanders on the attacking side, all of whom want a share of the lucrative smuggling route which runs through the town.
Another reason for American caution is that the usefulness as a fighting force of the Northern Alliance's mixture of Tajiks, Uzbeks and others, though greater than many sceptics had believed two months ago, may now be drawing to an end. In the country's southern half, dominated by the Pushtun ethnic group to which the Taliban leaders belong, it is still much less clear who America's natural allies are.
Meanwhile, attempts to find common ground between northerners and southerners were being tested at a conference in an isolated hilltop hotel near Bonn, in Germany. On November 27th, representatives of the Northern Alliance (though not its top people) agreed with various other factions—including Pushtun supporters of Mohammed Zahir Shah, the Rome-based ex-king, and the so-called Cyprus group of Afghan exiles who are backed by Iran—on the outlines of a new government. This calls for the appointment of a small but ethnically mixed executive council as soon as possible; an appointed, but broadly based, legislature by next spring; and elections in about two years. But the northerners are resisting the presence of foreign peacekeepers in Kabul (which they control anyway) while others favour the idea.
Will Americans and Russians co-operate with each other? |
The West's governments are not without leverage in the talks. They have made it clear to the Afghan factions that they will not receive the massive injections of humanitarian aid that the country clearly needs unless they can agree on a broad-based government. One wild card, however, is the extent to which the interests of America and Russia—whose leaders have apparently been co-operating very closely—will continue to coincide.
Soon after America's marines flew in, at least a hundred Russians—not exactly soldiers, but armed men from the shadowy Ministry for Emergency Situations—turned up at an airfield north of Kabul. Russia said they were the harbingers of a “humanitarian” effort on which it was prepared to spend lavishly. More probably, this was a bid by Moscow to shore up the position of its favoured proxies in Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance. Although America's Pakistani friends want a post-war government to include a large number of “repentant” Taliban figures (who would be Pushtuns), Russia continues to insist that veterans of the Taliban be excluded. Despite the warmth and agreement between America and Russia so far in this war, the great game for influence in this hapless country is not entirely over.
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