IP: The War: Politics not going as planned

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-102101assess.story?coll=la%2Dhome%2Dtodays%2Dtimes

<snip>

"You're beginning to see the kinds of planes that do ground support, the 
AC-130s, the Predator [surveillance drones] that are doing some very 
close-in reconnaissance," said retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, the 
former U.S. regional commander for the Middle East. "You could see a very 
intense air application for a softening-up and preparing for the ground phase."

Although some U.S. officials had described the bombing's initial phase as a 
three- to five-day campaign, experts were skeptical that military planners 
really believed that they could polish off every worthwhile target in only 
a few days.

"It was kind of silly to ever have expected that," said Eliot Cohen, a 
professor of military strategy at Johns Hopkins University's School of 
Advanced International Studies, who conducted a study for the Air Force on 
the 1991 Persian Gulf War air campaign.

Defense officials also acknowledge privately that the continuation and 
intensification of the air campaign made sense, given the pressure to do as 
much damage as possible in Afghanistan before the onset of winter and the 
arrival of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Though officials have publicly insisted that neither winter nor Ramadan 
would cause them to stop the assault, some officials acknowledged privately 
that the winter will impede some operations and that it would be better to 
limit strikes during the holy month, given Islamic sensitivities.



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