Powell Sees No Halt in Afghan Campaign
During Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan
By CARLA ANNE ROBBINS and NEIL KING JR.
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Colin Powell said that while the U.S. may temper its military campaign over Afghanistan during the coming Muslim holy month of Ramadan, it has "to keep up the pressure" and won't halt the war.
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr. Powell also rejected a growing chorus of critics who argue that the concerns of allies, especially in the Islamic world, are stopping the U.S. from fighting a more aggressive war. "Nothing about this coalition is constraining," he said. "The president can do anything he wants."
The real difficulties, he argued, are geography and the elusive nature of an enemy that can't be attacked head-on, as Iraq was in the Persian Gulf War.
"It's fundamentally different," said Mr. Powell, who was the nation's top military leader during the Gulf conflict. "We don't have a nice army out there sitting in the desert. ... We don't have places like we did in the Gulf, where we had 10,000-foot runways everywhere."
He also said that U.S. relations with Russia have been transformed since Sept. 11's terrorist attacks, and hinted at a possible warming with Iran. And while he is eager to see Saddam Hussein out of power in Iraq, he said that so far the U.S. has no evidence that Baghdad is responsible for the anthrax attacks in the U.S.
What lies ahead in the U.S.'s war on terrorism? Read a transcript of The Wall Street Journal interview with Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Mr. Powell spoke at a time when the military campaign in Afghanistan is showing few signs of progress. But there are some encouraging hints. Just Thursday, several commanders of the Northern Alliance, the most organized military opposition to Afghanistan's Taliban regime, met near Mazar-e-Sharif to adopt a "common strategy" for capturing the key northern city within about 10 days, said Haron Amin, the opposition group's Washington representative.
Some of the issues touched on by Mr. Powell, speaking from his seventh-floor conference room at the State Department:
The difficulties of the military campaign: Mr. Powell conceded that there hasn't been a "big win on the ground." He said that the war will take time, and that the U.S. will prevail through patiently wearing down Taliban military forces.
He made clear that the U.S. now is relying heavily on the Northern Alliance, which represents a minority of Afghans, to carry the fight on the ground. "The trick here is that we have a first-class air force, but those who are on the ground, the Northern Alliance and others, are not yet first-class military organizations by any stretch of the imagination," he said.
The coalition: Mr. Powell said that predictions that countries allied with the U.S. would begin to fall away within weeks have proved wrong. "So far, nobody has jumped out of the boat," he said. "And I think we can keep the boat full of willing persons."
He had particular praise for Afghanistan's neighbors, which he said knew firsthand the threat posed by al Qaeda and the Taliban, and are willing to stand with the U.S. In particular, he said, "Pakistan has cut itself free of its Taliban connections. Some will suggest, 'Well, there's still some things going on,' but I can tell you that ... President Musharraf and his other leaders, they've cut themselves free."
Mr. Powell also hinted at the frustrations of several European allies that have been eager to join in the military action, but so far haven't been included in the Pentagon's war plans.
The Saudis: While there have been strong criticisms of Saudi Arabia for not doing more to shut down the money flow to al Qaeda, Mr. Powell defended Saudi cooperation since Sept. 11, saying "the Saudis are with us. The requests we have put to them have been responded to." And he said he was "reasonably sure" that Saudi officials would be forthcoming as the U.S. makes more specific requests to close down sources of terrorist funding.
Ramadan: "It would not be smart of us not to be sensitive to the fact that this is an important religious period," he said of the Muslim holy month, which begins in mid-November. At the same time, war planners will need to "keep the pressure up all through the winter."
While declining to provide details, Mr. Powell said that "military planners will take it into account, but we can't stop our campaign simply because of that."
Iran: Mr. Powell described how contacts had increased with Iran since Sept. 11, and suggested he might meet with an Iranian official at the United Nations next week as part of a broader discussion about Afghanistan. "There are some things happening here that might bear fruit over time," he said. But he was also quick to point out that the administration has not lost its "innocence with respect to the nature of Iran."
Iraq: Mr. Powell said he had seen no information implicating Iraq in recent anthrax attacks. But he insisted that no one in the administration was intentionally looking away. "If it's Iraq, and the evidence points to Iraq, we will finger Iraq."
Russia: Mr. Powell marveled at how much U.S.-Russian relations have improved since Sept. 11. "The Russians would have been going nuts three months ago" at the thought of U.S. troops in Central Asia, he said. "Now, we are all shaking hands, meeting in Dushanbe, Tashkent and all over the place. This is rather amazing."
Mr. Powell will meet Thursday with his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, to try to parlay that new relationship into some agreement on jettisoning or amending the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which bars missile defenses. When asked whether President Bush was now willing to live inside the ABM treaty for a while longer, if Russia would allow more robust missile-defense testing, Mr. Powell laughed and said, "You're trying to look at my hole cards." He added that the two sides had had "some success in getting closer" to bridging the gap between their two views.
Meanwhile, in the Afghan military campaign, the Pentagon said it continues to concentrate air strikes on Taliban troops and garrisons, especially those in the north of the country. About 50 carrier-based warplanes and a handful of long-range bombers and land-based strike aircraft attacked targets near Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul in the north, and the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the south.
In a marked escalation of firepower along the front lines, the Pentagon said American bombers were now dumping large quantities of unguided bombs on Taliban forces positioned there.
The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will travel Friday to Moscow, where he will discuss the war and missile defense, and then to central Asia.
The Pentagon also sent word to the White House that it intends to call up more than the original 50,000 reserve troops it had said it would need for homeland defense and the campaign in Afghanistan |
