IP: War to set up a military presence? from the Independent UK

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: "Michael Gurstein" <mgurst () vcn bc ca>
> To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Subject: Fw: War to set up a military presence?
> Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 08:19:09 -0400
>
> > INDEPENDENT (London) 18 September 2001
> > By Robert Fisk
> >
> > If Bush wants an invasion, it could become more costly than Vietnam
> >
> > President Bush is talking about a "crusade"  it would be difficult to find
> > a word more likely to enrage Muslims  but if he plans to wage it in
> > Afghanistan, the United States faces a military campaign more fraught and
> > potentially even more costly than Vietnam.
> >
> > Ground troops may be necessary to seize Osama bin Laden but they will be
> > entering a country containing one tenth of the world's land mines, left by
> > Soviet occupation forces across 80 per cent of the land.
> >
> > Besides, anyone who wants to invade Afghanistan needs friends. The
> > Russians had the communist government of Babrak Karmal. But, with the
> > murder of the only serious opponent of the Taliban, Shah Masood, by Arab
> > suicide bombers nine days ago, the United States hasn't a single friend in
> > that cemetery of foreign armies.
> >
> > So, are the Americans planning a mere attack by cruise missiles? They
> > fired 70 missiles at Osama bin Laden's camps after the bombing of the US
> > embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam  they knew where they were, of
> > course, because the camps were built by the CIA during the Afghan-Russian
> > war  but they did not touch Mr bin Laden. Do they plan to use special
> > parachute units to descend on the areas around Kandahar where Mr bin Laden
> > has been known to live in the past?
> >
> > And what about those mines? If the Americans are even contemplating a
> > ground force, it can enter only from Pakistan  the most dangerous main
> > supply route it would be possible to find  and up the Kabul Gorge from
> > Jalalabad. But the Russians seeded the perimeters of Jalalabad, Kandahar,
> > Khost and Herat with anti-armour mines. There are, in Afghanistan today,
> > more than 10 million mines. They lie in fields, on mountainsides, beside
> > roads, around the big cities, along irrigation ditches. On average,
> > between 20 and 25 Afghan men, women and children are blown up by mines
> > every day  even if we take the lower figure, this indicates 73,000
> > civilian casualties from these mines in the past 10 years alone.
> >
> > A military incursion would, therefore, need an army of mine clearance
> > specialists as well as soldiers, men who would have to inch their way over
> > the roughest terrain in the world  while under attack  to make the roads
> > and countryside safe for the Americans and their allies. Of Afghanistan's
> > 29 provinces, 27 are littered with mines.
> >
> > During their savage 10-year occupation, the Russians also planted
> > thousands of mines in "security zones" around Afghanistan's airports,
> > power stations and government installations. Western non-governmental
> > organisations working in the country two years ago estimated that it would
> > cost $1 per mine to clear Afghanistan's 10 million mines and 45 days to
> > clear merely a square mile of land. There are now two million disabled
> > men, women and children in Afghanistan. No infantry can march across this
> > territory.
> >
> > And then there is that main supply route. Pakistan has already made clear
> > that it will not involve its own military in a campaign, although there
> > are suspicions that enough money might persuade General Musharraf now
> > respectfully referred to as President by the Americans even though he took
> > the presidency illegally to change his mind. However, the "Jihadi" culture
> > has already impregnated the Pakistan army and there is a real possibility
> > of unrest turning to civil war if the Americans arrived to invade Muslim
> > Afghanistan.
> >
> > The very border areas through which a Western army would have to pass are
> > held by men loyal to the Taliban. On the Pakistani side of the frontier,
> > there are now 2,000 Taliban madrassas (schools) where religious teaching
> > is given not only to potential mujahedin but to Chechen and Tadjik
> > fighters as well.
> >
> > The policemen who guard these madrassas constitute a mere facade of
> > governmental control.
> >
> > Even if the Americans penetrated Afghanistan, their shells would only
> > plough over the ruins. The Russians tried to destroy the Taliban's
> > predecessors with 10 years of bombing, destroying whole villages, with
> > their people, farm animals, fields, trees and mud huts. And still they
> > could not get rid of the mujahedin, still they could not to use Mr Bush's
> > inappropriately folksy phrase "smoke them out of their holes".
> >
> > With Pakistan as its only, broken ally among Afghan-istan's neighbours,
> > with no friends inside the country and 10 million hidden land mines lying
> > across its mountains and fields and cities, Mr Bush's "crusade" looks more
> > than dangerous. We are now being told that the United States is no longer
> > afraid to take casualties. America, the President says, will have to
> > accept losses. He'd better be right.
> >
> > ======================
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
> >



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