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To: long-gone who wrote (77703)	10/1/2001 7:51:08 AM
From: Richnorth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116753

Massive force ready but options risky Although the US is ready to strike at will, it is perplexed by the question of how to take on the enemy in its remote and rocky havens 28,000 personnel 300 warplanes 24 ships WASHINGTON - The US has now amassed a military force of 28,000 sailors, airmen and troops, more than 300 warplanes and two dozen warships spread for thousands of miles across a military theatre with Iraq and Afghanistan at its heart. The diverse forces, stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea, bring a potent range of military options with them to keep pressure on those two isolated nations, one a long-time foe and the other a new target. Ever since the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the United States has maintained a significant military presence in the region, largely to keep President Saddam Hussein of Iraq in check. At any given time, those forces number more than 20,000 military personnel, nearly 200 fighter and support aircraft and at least one aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships, which include submarines, cruisers and destroyers able to fire scores of long-range cruise missiles. Since the terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush has greatly bolstered that force. Immediately after the attacks, he ordered the aircraft carrier Enterprise and its battle group to remain in the region after the carrier Carl Vinson arrived in the Persian Gulf, doubling instantly the naval firepower normally stationed there. Each carrier has roughly 75 aircraft - half of which are F-14s and F-18s attack jets - capable of conducting round-the-clock air operations for days at a time. Two other carriers - the Theodore Roosevelt, headed to the Mediterranean Sea, and the Kitty Hawk, which recently steamed out of its home port in Japan - could also join the operation, but have not yet received orders to do so, officials said. Mr Bush also ordered the Air Force to send nearly 50 combat aircraft to the region, including B-52 and B-1 bombers now on Diego Garcia, the British island in the Indian Ocean, according to officials familiar with the preparations. Although Diego Garcia is thousands of kilometres from Afghanistan, the bombers have more than enough range to reach their targets. In addition, Iran's state Irna news agency reported yesterday that Washington and London have deployed more than 40 warships in the Gulf region. But while there is enough firepower to allow Mr Bush to order strikes at any moment he chooses, senior Pentagon officials acknowledge that the immediate options are in many ways both imperfect and risky. The question of how to battle terrorists in their remote and rocky Afghan havens has perplexed military planners in both the Clinton and Bush administrations, some of whom share a darkly comic answer when asked about the war plan. 'It's called AOS,' they say, using a barracks abbreviation for 'all options stink'. Another senior military official said there was 'no good option that wouldn't make us look useless'. However, the buildup continues even while Pentagon officials talk of lightning raids and precise strikes against targets in Afghanistan, because no matter how brief and limited, such operations require a vast and expensive network of bases, command posts, flight decks, refuelling outposts and defensive weapons, with all the accompanying logistics. So far, the Bush administration has resisted the temptation to retaliate immediately for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as it rallies broader international support for battling terrorism and gleans intelligence on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and his allies. -- New York Times, AFP

To: long-gone who wrote (77703)	10/1/2001 11:16:46 AM
From: Diana	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116753

Let the CIA, Rangers, Seals or whoever covertly capture him, fly him to an undisclosed hospital and have surgeons quickly perform a complete sex change operation. Then we return 'her' to Afghanistan to live under the Taliban. Great minds think alike.<G> Back on 9-14 I had a similar "role reversal" thought: >>Perhaps after these "governments" fall, the fitting social structure would be to require all men to wear the burqa and to remain at home without any visitors or schooling. I think a few years of this would realign some serious misinterpretations of their "religion". <<

To: long-gone who wrote (77703)	10/5/2001 5:30:43 AM
From: bearcub	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 116753

LG, your post is awful. If you think the situation of veiled women Janelle and I saw on that hour long CNN special about Afgani women overthere today is funny, then there is no reason to take seriously anything you post. Is your post what people call Gallo's humor? Don't you have a wife or mother or sister or something? Death is too good for Osama, but that is what justice requires. And that goes for a whole lot of his so called friends, that did this terrible thing to us and evidently from what we've been reading here and listening to on tv, did to other countries, too. Hope we are not too late to clean out the nest of vipers like Osama and his buddies. Janelle and I don't care if those silly people make him a martyr. They are the same ones who have made him a hero now. So, their silly viewpoint isn't worth even considering by people with a conscience. Hitler attacked jews in horrid numbers. Would you want him dead or turned into a jew and then gassed after male surgery? My wife and I just don't share your sick sense of humor! Z