Fareed Zakaria Washington Post
There has been a debate within the administration about how to proceed and, thankfully, Colin Powell and some others have been able to prevail -- for now -- over the hotter heads in the Defense Department. The Powell strategy has gained the crucial support of Vice President Dick Cheney, who understands that key allies such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt will not go along with a wider war against all terrorism instead of a campaign targeted against al Qaeda. Living close to the enemy, the Saudis and Egyptians know just how complex the battle against al Qaeda will be.
It was inevitable that the sensible strategy would win out. When America faces a real crisis or enemy, fantasy foreign policies collapse and reality intrudes. You see a similar pattern in our relations with China. In the absence of a crisis, Americans have a fiery hothouse debate over just how we are going to overthrow the evil butchers of Beijing. And then something like the airplane crisis in Hainan takes place and the administration follows a sober course. In the first six months the Bush administration fired off in several unilateral directions, annoying countries around the world. Now a crisis is upon us and this very team is paying America's U.N. dues, taking matters to the United Nations, telling Russia that we understand its situation in Chechnya, forgiving Pakistan for its nuclear explosions and even finding a kind word for the Iranian mullahs.
This article starring:
Colin Powell
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2001 ||
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Nick Cook, JDW Aerospace Consultant, London
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week sought to dampen speculation of an all-out offensive against Afghanistan by saying that there would be no single co-ordinated "D-Day-style assault" on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network or the forces of the ruling Taliban regime. Instead, Rumsfeld warned, the US-led anti-terror campaign would be long, difficult and dangerous.
Rumsfeld's comments raise the spectre of a prolonged conflict, but they also point towards a careful double-edged strategy, analysts believe, comprising a comprehensive military build-up backed by a barely perceptible psychological operations offensive, designed to throw the enemy off-guard and to maximise the effects of US and allied military action when it takes place. This is hardly surprising, they add, given that psychological operations (Psyops) are an integral part of US information warfare (Infowar) strategy and Infowar is now an accepted part of US battle-planning.
This article starring:
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2001 ||
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AndrewSullivan.com
RUSHDIE AND THE LEFT: I agree with almost everything Salman Rushdie says today in the Washington Post. It is a gorgeous piece in some ways - and a watershed. Why? Because of the following sentences: "It's time to stop making enemies and start making friends [in the world]. To say this is in no way to join in the savaging of America by sections of the left that has been among the most unpleasant consequences of the terrorists' attacks on the United States ... Let's be clear about why this bien-pensant anti-American onslaught is such appalling rubbish. Terrorism is the murder of the innocent; this time, it was mass murder. To excuse such an atrocity by blaming U.S. government policies is to deny the basic idea of all morality: that individuals are responsible for their actions." Thank you, Salman. Thank you.
This article starring:
Salman Rushdie
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2001 ||
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Jill Lawless, AP
BRIGHTON, England - British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a ringing call Tuesday for action against terror, saying Afghanistan's Taliban regime must ``surrender the terrorists or surrender power.''
``This is a battle with only one outcome. Our victory, not theirs,'' Blair told his Labor Party. In one of the toughest warnings yet to the Taliban from a Western leader, Blair said there could be no compromise with terrorism and promised Britain would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States in the struggle. Blair gave no indication of when military action might start. He said the main target would be bin Laden. But if the Taliban do not surrender the terrorists, he said, action would also aim to ``eliminate their military hardware, cut off their finances, disrupt their supplies, target their troops, not civilians.''
``I say to the Taliban: Surrender the terrorists or surrender power,'' he said.
This article starring:
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2001 ||
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STEVE WARMBIR AND FRANK MAIN STAFF REPORTERS Chicago Sun Times
Two Virginia residents were ordered held without bail Monday on charges they helped hijackers in the Sept. 11 attack get fake IDs. Luis Martinez-Flores and Kenys Galicia, both of suburban Washington D.C., helped four suspected terrorists, authorities said Monday. Martinez-Flores' name first surfaced on a Sept. 19 list that the FBI sent to banks looking for financial transactions as part of the terrorism investigation, authorities said.
This article starring:
Kenys Galicia
Luis Martinez-Flores
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2001 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
