Well they asked the US to get out,and the BRITS,so Russia..
Alliance in command, but US is unhappy
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
ASHINGTON: The United States is zeroing in Osama Bin Laden, having narrowed down its search for the world’s most wanted man to less than 100 square kilometres in Southeast Afghanistan. But much to its irritation, it is unable to contain the growing influence and aspiration of the Northern Alliance, which is now in control of three-fourths of the country and is pressing to succeed the Taliban in Kabul.
The disconnect between the military advance and diplomatic success is becoming apparent every passing hour, leading the administration to warn the Alliance not to push its luck. Senior administration officials have stressed the need to adhere to the planned broad-based government that includes the dominant Pashtun community that the Taliban claimed to represent.
The signs out of Kabul have been mixed so far. On the one hand, the Alliance has established total control over the capital and is putting in place a rudimentary administration and policing force, to the extent that it is now asking British and American forces to butt out. At the same time, it is also signaling that it is ready to enter into talks to enable the formation of a broad-based government in tune with the wishes of the United Nations and much of the international community.
The simmering mistrust between the United States and the Northern Alliance dates back to the start of the US bombing campaign when Washington, at the instance of the State Department, held back on giving arms and air cover to Alliance fighters to push into Kabul. When the Taliban rout became inevitable, President Bush, again at the instance of State Department mandarins, advised the Alliance not to enter Kabul.
In both instances, the State Department was trying primarily to address the concerns its client state Pakistan, which is implacably opposed to the Northern Alliance, having backed the Taliban against all odds. As the Alliance victory became imminent, Islamabad began raising the bogey of revenge killings and a fratricidal civil war. The US was also reminded that the sections of the Northern Alliance were int large-scale opium smuggling that was subsequently stopped by the Taliban.
However, initial reports of Alliance fighters carrying out large-scale reprisals against the Taliban have not been borne out. Instead, the Alliance appears to be instituting fairly orderly governing systems, and has offered amnesty in several places to surrendering Taliban forces. If anything, reports from Afghanistan speak of fratricidal fights between Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda and the Taliban who want to surrender.
It is now becoming increasingly clear that the Northern Alliance, having forced its way into Kabul against the public caution – but possible private approval – of the US, has no intention of relinquishing a pre-eminent role in the emerging scheme of things. Alliance leaders have also begun to assert themselves against western forces in areas now under their control.
"If you are talking about the presence of thousands of fighting troops from outside Afghanistan, this is a major issue which has to be discussed. The events of the past few days showed that the forces which were capable of doing the job on the ground were the forces of the [Alliance]," the regime’s putative foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, US officials are invoking various escape scenarios that Bin Laden might have used to sneak out of Afghanistan. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld alluded to a possible hidden helicopter that might ferry the world’s most wanted man to some other anti-U.S. regime via a private jet in Pakistan. Initial reports that Bin Laden might have already fled to Pakistan with his several wives and children has been met with scepticism in Washington, which believes he is still holed up somewhere near Kandahar.
The United States has now imposed a "total picture" over the region, a mixture of satellites, drones and ground intelligence should enable it to trace any movement on the ground. The feeling in Washington is that Osama has been cornered, his days and hours are numbered, and the military end game is near. But officials insist that the broader war against terrorism will continue alongside the diplomatic detailing of a new regime in Kabul. |
