|
rant on!
Arabs with wet feet? --no, actually pragmatic. Now that
22 days have elapsed, the mullahs have had time to stir
the people and threaten the collection of kings,
princes, sheiks, dictators, etc. who rule their
countries without popular consent and try to keep a lid
on their own fundamentalists.
This is the precise reason why, by the strategy of any
war planner, you strike when they are least prepared for
it --several hours after the attack, even the Arabs were
numb. Our military planners must learn to understand
--and accept-- that we are facing a cultural war.
Revenge may be part of the decision, but there is no
point in blanket revenge. This is a strategy game and
there is no time for idealistic ramblings that the US
and the free world should be investigating the causes of
terror, or the determination of the fundamentalists to
destroy the non-fundamentalist world --it's a stone cold
fact, it's war, and the name of the game in war is to
win. Finishing second only counts in horse races.
Churchill put it clearly:
If you will not fight for right when you can easily
win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your
victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to
the moment when you will have to fight with all the
odds against you and only a precarious chance of
survival.
"There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when
there is no hope of victory, because it is better to
perish than to live as slaves."
Churchill also said:
"Politics are almost as exciting as war and quite as
dangerous.
In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics many times."
which has a double meaning: if you
fail to have the courage of your convictions, the body
politic which you represent may be killed in the ensuing
war on the enemy's terms, not your terms.
This is not a war against an "enemy"; this is a conflict
between civilizations and the decisions made need to
reflect that reality.
This is not the time for collective action from a
coalition which is, at best, giving lip service to
Washington solely to avoid being on the wrong side of
Bush's statement to the effect: ...'either you are with
us, or against us...'
The US must be willing to go it alone; the US is the
target since the collapse of the US accomplishes the
objectives of the fundamentalists: the collapse of the
free world. The fundamentalists do not care if the world
is plunged into poverty and darkness --their stated
intention is to set the clock back 1300 years as they
ban radios, TVs, movies, the internet, etc. --not to
mention the treatment of women --worse than chattel
slaves.
We, the United States, are fighting for our survival;
the Brits will probably hang in there with us as they
seem to recognize the imperative nature of survival
--even the Queen sang the Star Spangled Banner in
St. Paul's Cathedral (that must have been really
impressive since St Paul's has a massive, thundering
organ); and, the day before, the Queen ordered the Star
Spangled Banner played at the changing of the [palace]
Guard.
Let's not let a few weak-kneed client governments get
in the way of our unfinished business.
|
03 Oct 2001
Times [This Is London]
US 'called off first attacks'
by Jeremy Campbell in Washington
The United States and Britain yesterday called off
military strikes against terrorist targets in
Afghanistan at the last minute.
Washington officials say today that a severe attack of
last-minute cold feet by some key Arab members of the
coalition caused President Bush to postpone the
operation.
The waverers are Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Oman, and
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is embarking on an
urgent mission today to strengthen nerves in these
countries.
Prime Minister Tony Blair is also about to undertake a
hasty visit to the region. Saudi Arabia's support is
especially vital, because Allied aircraft and commanders
need its base facilities.
Two senior US officials have told reporters that until
yesterday the Saudis were firm in their offer to provide
assistance for strikes, including use of a
state-of-the-art command centre at the Prince Royal
Sultan Air Force Base.
Then the situation changed. One US official told Knight
Newspapers: "That is no longer true. We fear there is
something deeper here."
Mr Rumsfeld's trip to the Middle East is intended to
mend these unexpected ruptures.
Downing Street, meanwhile, confirmed Mr Blair will be
departing on a mission tomorrow but refused, on security
grounds, to be drawn on any of the detail. Amid clear
unease over the advance leaks of the trip, a spokesman
dismissed all reports as "speculationî maintaining that
some of the suggested calling points for the Prime
Minister were simply wrong.
Mr Rumsfeld's tour, which includes Saudi Arabia, Oman,
Egypt and Uzbekistan, is being compared to the
stage-setting trip made by Dick Cheney, then Defence
Secretary, to the Gulf just before the start of Desert
Storm.
This time there is more at stake. Near the top of Mr
Rumsfeld's list of priorities is to talk his way to an
agreement with Uzbekistan, on the northern border of
Afghanistan, to use the country as a staging area for
the attack.
Uzbekistan is now regarded as a potential key asset in
the coming showdown, but is rated the coalition's single
most fragile link.
Highly attractive to the US are the number of abandoned
air bases there, once used by the Soviet Union.
This will be Mr Rumsfeld's first face-to-face meeting
with the ruling regime there. It has demanded that the
US negotiate a complete Status of Forces Agreement
before it will permit the use of its military bases - an
unrealistic condition which could be tangled up in legal
knots for years.
The trip, undertaken at the request of President Bush,
is expected to last three days.
Oman, also skittish, is regarded as an important support
base for a ground incursion. US special operations
forces can be flown there and then put on amphibious
invasion ships.
US officials are not sure whether this is a case of
lastminute jitters, or "something more serious".
One notable omission on Mr Rumsfeld's itinerary is
Pakistan. "The last thing Pakistan needs is a high
profile visit by a US Secretary of Defence," said a
Pentagon official.
The country is contending with ferocious anti-American
demonstrations, with Mr Bush burned in effigy and hordes
shouting: "Death to America! Let Americans come here to
be buried!"
Washington officials advised reporters not to assume
military action was only hours away. They stressed that
Mr Bush will act only when he is convinced, by Mr
Rumsfeld and others, that "all the pieces are in
place". Such action will come "at various stages and
times", they said. The President himself told reporters
there is "no calendar" for the start of hostilities.
