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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (93)	11/8/2001 9:15:20 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Respond to of 32591

It Is Long Past Time Steven Brockerman 08 November 2001 Worldwide, there has been concern voiced for the deaths of innocent noncombatants in Afghanistan. Where are these voices when the killer, Yasser Arafat, and his terrorist PLO slaughters innocent noncombatants in Israel? In America, pacifists and professors condemn, as racist, America’s attack on Afghanistan. Where was this condemnation when: * Palestinian Arab author Hassan al-Agha, denying the Holocaust, stated, "It is well-known that every year the Jews exaggerate what the Nazis did to them…”? * Loudspeakers outside mosques screeched, "Allah hu akbar; Itbah al-Yahud!" (God is great; Slaughter the Jews)? * In an article in al- Ahram, Dr. Lufti Abd al-Azim wrote that the “Jew is a Jew, through the millennia… spurning all moral values, devouring the living and drinking his blood for the sake of a few coins.” * Even as America’s military targets bin Laden for assassination, President Bush’s spokesmen call similar action by Israel against PLO terrorist leaders unacceptable. In his statement before the U. S. Government Reform Committee on September 20, 2001, Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to the events of September 11, said, “Today, we are all Americans - in grief, as in defiance.” It is long past time for the United States – and any freedom loving nation left in the world – to declare that, as did Robert Tracinski in his Creators Syndicate column of September 19, 2001, “We are all Israelis now.” It is long past the time for America to support, not restrain, Israel in her war with the PLO. It is long past the time for America to declare, not that America envisions a free Palestinian state – an oxymoron given the dictatorship under which ordinary Palestinians would live if such occurred – but that America envisions a secure Israeli nation free to fully defend herself against the aggression of murdering, racist, Middle Eastern tyrants intent upon her destruction. It is now time for the United States of America to say, “Jerusalem is New York – let’s roll!” ------------------- Steven Brockerman, a veteran of the 101st Airborne Division of the US military, is Adjunct Professor of English and President of WrittenWord Consulting of Tallahassee, Florida.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (93)	11/9/2001 9:39:40 AM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

Agreed on those unsubstantiated reports. I imagine those soldiers are comprised primarily of fighters fromt he surrounding republics that were formerly the USSR, and arent interested in Taleban-like anarchy in their provinces which are tasting freedom for the first time, and like it. Here is another interesting article re: India fro Stratfor stratfor.com India: Sibling Rivalry Surges on Subcontinent 2200 GMT, 011108 Summary Indian Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee meets U.S. President George W. Bush on Nov. 9. Vajpayee is pressing Washington and Moscow to include India in international anti-terrorism operations and to support New Delhi's fight against Pakistani-backed Islamic militants in Kashmir. New Delhi is concerned that Washington's immediate reliance on Pakistani cooperation will revive close U.S.-Pakistan military ties, leaving India once again playing second fiddle to its rival. Analysis Indian Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee will meet with U.S. President George W. Bush Nov. 9, less than a week after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. On the agenda are India's cooperation in international anti-terrorism efforts, Pakistan's alleged support of militants in the contested Kashmir region and greater technical, economic and military cooperation between Washington and New Delhi. Vajpayee's visit comes amid an Indian push to recast perceptions of Pakistan as a friend of Islamic terrorist organizations. New Delhi is concerned that Washington's immediate reliance on Pakistani cooperation for the fight in Afghanistan could presage closer political and military ties between Islamabad and Washington, leaving India facing a strengthened Pakistan while failing to gain U.S. backing on the Kashmir issue. Although internal political pressure will force officials to repeatedly bring the issue to the fore, New Delhi will avoid going so far as to undermine its own position as a long-term strategic asset to the United States. Long-standing rivalries and continued bickering over Kashmir have rendered nearly hopeless the U.S. State Department's attempts in recent years to de-link Washington's relations with Islamabad from those with New Delhi. Since the planning stages of the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan, Washington has struggled to balance the immediate need for Pakistani cooperation with a long-term strategic need to enhance relations with India. The result: Washington has been obliged to reject most Indian offers of assistance in the war on terrorism and has proceeded cautiously in classifying and addressing alleged Pakistani-backed Muslim militants in Kashmir. New Delhi continues to press the issue of Pakistani complicity both in Kashmir and Afghanistan in attempts to keep Washington from growing too close to Islamabad. This has both threatened Washington's tenuous alliance with Pakistan and strained its long-term relations with India. To improve its leverage with the United States, India not only has emphasized Pakistan's historic ties to the Taliban and Kashmiri militants but also has turned to Moscow for support. Russia, another key U.S. ally in the battle against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, faces its own security problems from Islamic militants in Chechnya. Although the United States has criticized the Russian war in Chechnya in the past, it recently has taken a much softer tone. India Seeking to Disrupt U.S.-Pakistani Ties Indian and Pakistani troops along the Kashmir border engaged in the region's heaviest fighting of the year Oct. 15. The clashes, reportedly started by India, broke out just before U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Pakistan. New Delhi is seeking to weaken Washington's burgeoning ties with Islamabad, and this could prove problematic not only for the U.S.-led operations against Afghanistan but also for U.S.-Indian relations in the long run. Analysis India and Pakistan engaged in the heaviest fighting of the year Oct. 15 along the Line of Control, the boundary dividing the disputed Kashmir region between the two countries. Indian defense officials claimed 11 Pakistani military posts were destroyed and at least 12 "terrorists" were killed, the Times of India reported. Pakistan's military, however, claimed "unprovoked" Indian fighting along the border injured 25 civilians and killed one, according to the Pakistani daily The Nation. Click here to continue. Related Analysis: U.S. and India Seek to Boost Military Relations -30 May 2001 Tanks Support India’s New Security Strategy -22 February 2001 Kashmir: Islamabad's Distraction Threatens U.S. Forces -24 October 2001 India-Pakistan Summit: Can a Kashmir Solution be Found? -12 July 2001 By calling on Russia, India hopes to gain support in dealing with the United States. At the same time, it hopes to stir Washington to quick action to prevent closer Moscow-New Delhi ties that ultimately could weaken U.S. influence in South and Central Asia. Moscow has been seemingly happy to oblige, offering to represent New Delhi's opinions in talks with Washington and to push for India's inclusion in any ultimate discussions of Afghanistan's future. More immediately, Russia has backed India's concerns that the United States is applying a double standard in dealing with Pakistan by differentiating between Pakistani-based militants in Kashmir and other terrorists. At a Nov. 6 press conference after the meeting with Vajpayee, Putin said, "There cannot be good and bad terrorists, our terrorists and others." In essence, he criticized the United States for fighting al Qaeda while condemning Russia's fight in Chechnya and India's battles in Kashmir. Moscow is also taking concrete steps to seal its ties with New Delhi. It will deliver the first batch of advanced T-90 tanks to India in November, the Indian Express reported. They will be deployed in the north and west opposite Pakistan. Originally scheduled for delivery in 2002, the tanks are part of a broader deal signed earlier this year that would give India a total of 310 T-90s, 140 of which will be delivered ready-to-use, with the remainders arriving in semi-knockdown condition for final construction in India. According to IRNA, Russia is now ready to deliver all 140 ready tanks this year. Armed with Russia's moral support and the news of the imminent delivery of T-90s, Vajpayee is preparing to meet Bush and Congress members in Washington. He will emphasize India's long-term strategic importance to the United States and press Washington to more quickly control Pakistani-based militants operating in Kashmir. Washington seems prepared to buy off India in order to keep tensions between India and Pakistan in check. On the BBC program Hard Talk India, U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Washington would fight terrorism "wherever we see it. That includes India, that includes the United States." Rice also suggested Washington is taking steps to label Pakistani-based militant groups in Kashmir as foreign terrorist organizations. The talks in Washington will also focus on bilateral issues such as tighter security cooperation. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca said the lifting of U.S. sanctions against India -- which were initially imposed in response to its nuclear tests -- will allow faster "scientific, security and commercial cooperation," the Times of India reported. Indian media have also suggested that Bush and Vajpayee would make a joint statement on increased military ties, which were mostly suspended after India's nuclear tests. New Delhi is finally getting the assurances it desires U.S. ties with Pakistan and with India. As the conflict in Afghanistan degrades into a quagmire for U.S. forces, India -- like Russia and Iran -- will become increasingly important to Washington's strategic planning. New Delhi is counting on this and at the same time reminding Washington of its importance in order to avoid the re-emergence of a stronger, U.S.-backed Pakistan on its border.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (93)	11/10/2001 6:13:28 PM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

But let's give them their own State!:PA Official Calls for “War Against the Crusaders” 07 November 2001 The al-Aqsa Mosque, on the Temple Mount, was the site of a Friday sermon by Yusuf Abu Snena, an official of the Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs, which was also broadcast over the “Voice of Palestine” radio. He said that “the U.S. support for renewed Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and cities should serve as a lesson to those who shed tears for the American blood shed…” In a strange analogy, the preacher seemed to compare the Islamic nations currently under Western attack to Germany of World War I and World War II: “The attack on our Islamic allies seems to be a repetition of the First World War, reminding us of the cooperation between the heretics to bring down the German nation, which was destroyed by the heretic nations, thus giving those heretic and imperialistic nations the freedom to invade our Arab Muslim homelands. These heretic nations are once again attacking, like dogs, Muslim Afghanistan, and are fighting Islam everywhere… Imperialism is returning to Arab regions, through the guise of a ‘war on terror,’ and therefore the question must be asked: When the English and the French fought the Nazis, were they then also fighting terror or were they fighting Islam?” Therefore, concluded the PA official, “We urge all Muslims to unite in a war against the Crusaders, and that Allah will bring vengeance upon them.” israelnationalnews.com