Musharraf: U.S. Bombing is Working
Wednesday Oct. 31, 2001; 9:21 a.m. EST
While American media sources decry the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan as ineffective and counterproductive, a crucial ally in the region said Tuesday that attacks have severely undermined support for Osama bin Laden and his Taliban backers.
"Afghanistan has suffered, the people are suffering so much that I am reasonably sure there are many people who even question the wisdom of their suffering for the sake of somebody who is there and not an Afghan, like Osama bin Laden and his people,'' said Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in an interview with Reuters Television.
"There are some people who would be thinking on these lines and those are the people who may be waiting to change sides,'' he added.
The former commando leader hinted that he expected continued bombing to provoke defections from the Taliban among Afghanistan's dominant Pashtun tribe.
"No, it's not wishful thinking," he told Reuters. "Who is the head of the Pashtun? Not the Taliban. It is a very calculated remark that I am making.''
Pakistan is considered the U.S.'s most important strategic ally in the effort to defeat the Taliban and military planners say Musharraf's support is indispensible.
The Pakistani president said he would not press President Bush to halt the bombing for the Islamic holy celebration of Ramadan.
"I would discuss the matter with him (Bush) but I wouldn't be pressing him as such.'' he told Reuters, adding that there was a "possibility" that the Taliban could be defeated before the holiday begins in mid November.
Mussharaf's tacit endorsement for continued U.S. bombing comes at great political and well as personal risk, with opposition mounting among Pakistan's Islamic militants, who called for him to be deposed this week.
Still, he told Reuters, that opposition has been less than he expected.
Though Musharraf's remarks should give great encouragement to Americans who have been bombarded by domestic news sources suggesting the U.S. war effort has been a failure so far, no major newspaper in America's media capital of New York covered his comments.
newsmax.com |
