/ | _ \ | | |
_o_\_,_;_(_ ,o _\;__,_,_,_; :
( .. (
Assalamualaikum wr. wb.,
A wise decision, indeed....
Upik
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/russia/story.jsp?story=94140
Putin would not support a US invasion of Afghanistan
Russia
By Patrick Cockburn
15 September 2001
Despite calls from US President George Bush to Russian
President Vladimir Putin, asking for full support in
the wake of the suicide attacks, Russia is making it
clear that it will not back an American invasion of
Afghanistan from bases in the former Soviet Central
Asia.
Sergei Ivanov, the Russian Defence Minister, said: "I
don't see any basis for even the hypothetical
possibility of Nato military operations on the
territory of central Asian nations that belong to the
Commonwealth of Independent States."
There has been speculation in the US that Russia and
its allies would help the US encircle Afghanistan from
the north, while Washington pressured Pakistan to act
from the south against Afghanistan.
Russia is the main player in the loose group of
neighbours of Afghanistan which supports the
anti-Taliban rebel group, Northern Alliance, in the
north of the country. Russia also has the 201st
division, with about 25,000 troops, based in
Tajikistan and located immediately north of the Afghan
border.
Mr Bush is reported to be seeking Russian help because
of its deep knowledge of Afghanistan, where it fought
a long war, and its domination of the immense region
north of Afghanistan. In both cases Russian resources
may be less than they seem. After all, the Russian
army failed to defeat the rebels in Afghanistan
between 1979 and 1989. Its intelligence information is
also more than a little rusty. Russia is still the
strongest power in central Asia, but it does not
dominate the five states carved out of the old Soviet
Union. Several of them are suspicious of Russian
designs.
General Anatoly Kvashnin, the Russian Chief of Staff,
said it was unlikely that the Russian army would take
part in any "acts of revenge" against the perpetrators
of the attacks in the US. "The US has powerful enough
military forces that it can cope with this task on its
own," he said.
Meanwhile, Nikolai Kovalyov, the former head of the
Russian FSB security service, warned the US that an
attack on Afghanistan would fail to capture Osama bin
Laden, the alleged mastermind of the atrocities, and
would backfire on the US. "In Afghanistan's
mountainous terrain it takes a trainload of explosives
to destroy three militants," he said. "The chance of
hitting bin Laden is zero."
__________________________________________________
Terrorist Attacks on U.S. - How can you help?
Donate cash, emergency relief information
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/US/Emergency_Information/
Silakan kunjungi website 'moderator' :-)
di http://abuharits.cjb.net
