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| Afghanistan |
| Northern Alliance says they're ready |
| 2001-10-05 |
BAGRAM, AFGHANISTAN - The stout general hoisted himself up the steep metal staircase of the airport control tower and surveyed the nearby front line - as close as it gets to the capital, Kabul. The windows are gone. The buildings below are in ruins. The carcasses of scavenged MiG jet fighters rot in a collapsing hangar nearby. Taliban troops line trenches and man rocket launchers less than two miles away. But General Babajan doesn't see wreckage at this military air strip just 18 miles north of Kabul. He sees an opportunity, now that the US has pledged to begin its war against terrorism with his foe, the radical Islamic Taliban militia. "American forces can use it if they want," the general says magnanimously. While few believe that the Northern Alliance - an umbrella grouping of ethnic Tajik and Uzbek and other minority militias, united only in their opposition to the Pashtun-dominated Taliban - can rule this unruly country, the 15,000-strong alliance is a powerful card for the US to play. And there is other good news for the Alliance. Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah on Wednesday announced that he has the names of "dozens" of Taliban commanders who are willing to change sides. Many were paid for their allegiance in the mid-1990s, when the Taliban swept across Afghanistan, and reportedly have no ideological connection to the Taliban. Dr. Abdullah claims that "it will not be exaggerating to talk about 10,000" Taliban fighters who would switch over to the Alliance side. Such figures, though, are impossible to independently verify. "These people have been living under Taliban control for a long time, and they are willing to change sides," he says. But any such defections do not necessarily mean that Taliban morale is flagging, according to Babajan, who claims that 1,000 Taliban fighters crossed over early this week in three regions. "The morale of the Taliban is too high, because they burned the US Embassy [in Kabul] and burned effigies of President Bush," says the general. "They are telling the people, 'Americans can't do anything against us, and many Islamic countries will help us,' " Babajan says. "So day by day, they are becoming hopeful." But there is hope, too, budding among Alliance fighters, that one more battle could spell the end of a generation of war. Before proudly touring the broken airbase, he had been speaking before a group of 200 of his soldiers - one-tenth of those under his command at Bagram. Turning to his assembled troops, he asks, loudly: "Are you ready to fight against the Taliban?" "We are ready!" the troops shout back, raising their guns. Then they disperse, wearing a wide collection of black and white and colored scarves, turbans, and brimmed wool Afghan hats. They carry AK-47 assault rifles and shoulder-held rocket grenades. Most have beards, though some were too young. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |