You are missing the point Neo. Extreme aggression calls for extreme retaliation.
Sunday December 2 11:45 PM ET
Rumsfeld Talks of Extreme Measures
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - American military forces in Afghanistan (news - web sites), now numbering up to 2,000 troops, may resort to extraordinary measures to crush the Taliban militia and root out al-Qaida terrorists from fortified cave and tunnel hide-outs, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday.
Rumsfeld described the situation in Kandahar, the last remaining Taliban stronghold, as confused, and acknowledged the difficulty of penetrating cave systems deep in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.
``We're entering a very dangerous aspect of this conflict,'' he said on NBC's ``Meet the Press.'' ``The remaining task is a particularly dirty and unpleasant one.''
Rumsfeld was asked whether U.S. forces might pour gas into the cave complexes to flush out the terrorists.
``One will do whatever it is necessary to do,'' he replied. ``If people will not surrender, then they've made their choice.'' He noted that in Mazar-e-Sharif, opposition forces flooded a tunnel to get the last al-Qaida fighters, whom he called ``dead-enders,'' to come out and surrender.
U.S. commanders have not decided whether U.S. ground forces will be sent on a cave-by-cave manhunt. For now, the U.S.-led campaign is relying on the persuasive power of airstrikes near Kandahar and in the mountains south of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, and the incentive of $25 million in reward money for information from Afghan locals on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and his lieutenants.
The cave complexes that bin Laden may be using are dug deep into mountains and have ventilation and power systems that enable their inhabitants to operate indefinitely.
The U.S. Central Command, meanwhile, responded to claims by an anti-Taliban provincial military official that U.S. warplanes bombed an anti-Taliban headquarters Sunday, killing at least eight civilians. The claim came a day after the official reported similar bombings killed scores of civilians nearby. The attacks were not far from the Tora Bora cave complex believed to be a possible hide-out for bin Laden.
Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Compton, a Central Command spokesman in Tampa, Fla., said U.S. warplanes hit their intended targets around Tora Bora.
``We know targets near Tora Bora south of Jalalabad fall into the realm of al-Qaida and Taliban strongholds,'' he said. ``We are sure we are hitting these targets and we can account for all munitions. Al-Qaida and Taliban members who choose to bring innocent civilians (or) family members into these complexes put these noncombatants at risk.
``The United States regrets any loss of innocent civilian lives. We will continue, however, to destroy al-Qaida and Taliban leadership and the places they do business.''
Rumsfeld said Pentagon (news - web sites) officials do not know exactly how many Taliban fighters remain in and around Kandahar, in the southwest, only that they number in the thousands.
He said there are now between 1,500 and 2,000 American forces in Afghanistan, and that they face great risks.
``We expect that there will be casualties, we expect that there will be people captured,'' Rumsfeld said.
Asked whether the American public should be prepared for a few months of bloody battles in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld replied, ``Oh, I wouldn't limit it to that.'' He offered no prediction how long it would take.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said the U.S. military, in coordination with Afghan opposition forces, has put the Taliban and al-Qaida under enormous pressure to give up.
``Their options are being limited as more and more territory passes out of Taliban control,'' he said on CBS' ``Face the Nation.''
``The Taliban is still hanging on in Kandahar and in some of the southern provinces and in the mountains to the east and to the south, but they're under enormous pressure.''
Rumsfeld said it is not yet clear that an international peacekeeping force will be necessary in Afghanistan, even after the U.S. military campaign is finished. It is possible that Afghan forces will be able to maintain order in the country by themselves, he said. |
