Today is the six month point from the 9-11 attacks. I had my coffee and eggs this morning sitting in the same chair I was sitting in on September 11th, watching the same show on the same TV that I was watching when the planes hit. Outside, the day looks a lot like it did six months ago. It's a little cooler, and the leaves are thinking about coming out rather than dropping off. The geese are flying north instead of south. But it's the same kind of clear, pretty day.
A half a year's a reasonable point to stop and have a look at what we've accomplished since the attacks, and at where we have to go. Sen. Daschle might even want to read some of this.
What've we done?
Well, we - and the Northern Alliance - have liberated Afghanistan, for startsies. We identified the perpetrators of the attacks on our soil and went after them. We killed a lot of them, captured more, took a minimum of casualties ourselves, and inflicted a minimum of casualties on the innocent bystanders. It was just about 62 days from the time the al-Qaeda Air Force struck New York until Kabul fell. Pretty impressive.
Besides Afghanistan, we've reached agreements with the Philippines, Georgia, and Yemen to hunt down the Bad Guys. Sudan's signed an agreement with its Christian/Animist minority. If there was a government in Somalia, we'd have reached an agreement with them, too.
Despite bitching, moaning and backbiting by the Learned Elders of Journalism, the Euros have been fairly diligent about rounding up al-Qaeda thugs and jugging them. That could be because some of the other targets they had in mind have turned out to be Strasbourg, the Eiffel Tower, downtown London, and even Sydney. Brit and Aussie SAS are in there slugging it out next to our guys, along with forces from other, less expected places like Norway and Denmark and Germany. Polish troops are on their way to Kabul, and Czech chemical troops are going to Kuwait. The Euros, despite all their vaporings, are taking the fight seriously.
The other thing we've done is defined - at least in outline - who the enemy is. We viewed Osama bin Laden as our enemy on September 11th; he was the prime suspect in the attacks from the start. But we didn't have a feel for the actual structure of the enemy we were facing. We've found that Binny isn't the only enemy; he was just the most visible. Other parallel groups have come to light - Jamaah Islamiya in southeast Asia, the Khattab group in Chechnya, little groups allied with al-Qaeda such as Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, Jund al Islam in Kurdistan, and Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya in Somalia. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have assumed increased importance in the scheme of things, PFLP and similar politically-based groups correspondingly less.
Behind all the gunny groups we catch hazy glimpses of the intertwined money and ideology networks. We keep coming across the Saudis and their checkbooks - in the madrassahs of Pakistan, in "charitable" organizations in Bosnia cranking out phony IDs, "cultural" centers recruiting jihadis in Britain. We see Pakistan and its ISI involved in running the training camps that provide the snuffies that fan out all over the world to kill and maim. We see the two come together in the confluence of Wahhabism and the debased Deobandi clerics of Pakistan. And floating behind it all we see even rarer glimpses of the Muslim Brotherhood in Chechnya and Dagestan, and the Saudi clerics who are the real drivers showing up in Binny's home videos.
And what's next?
The Bush administration has been admirable in its pursuit of the war. It hasn't become bogged down in meaningless talks that are conceived to go nowhere. It's found the enemy and attacked him. Here's hoping the next six months see more of the same.
That doesn't mean they've always been right. We've made mistakes, especially in the amount of reliance we've put on our Euroallies and the amount of trust we've put in all of them. Live and learn, and don't bother listening when they complain about our "unilateralism."
Probably the biggest mistake Bush has made has been in the area of priorities. The Axis of Evil speech laid out three mortal enemies of the US. While the Europress affects to scratch its collective head and ask what they have in common the answer is pretty clear: all hate our guts, and all are in the process of developing or trying to develop nuclear weapons. But at the same time, they're not the ones who attacked us in September. As a matter of guaranteeing our national existence, it'll be necessary to deal with them at some point, whether militarily, diplomatically or politically doesn't matter. But the Islamonazis are at this moment more dangerous than they are, even though they appear to be on the run. We can't let up on them, not for a moment, because they're driven by pure hatred.
The other mistake the administration has made has been not to back Russia, India and Israel, our natural allies in the fight, as though they were us. Both have to pursue their fights against terrorism with the same thoroughness we do. But we back off in our support for Israel against the bloody Arafat regime as soon as the bodies start to pile up. We defer to the Learned Elders of Journalism in regarding the Chechen "rebels" as something other than bloodthirsty killers. We tell the Indians to negotiate with the same Pakistani government that was running terrorist camps in Afghanistan when Pakistani thugs attack their Parliament building.
Finally, we have to worry about our own people. They started out hungry for the blood of the killers. But the USA has a notoriously short attention span, which is what the people behind this war are counting on. They expect us to tire of it, they expect us to become bored with it. They also expect our grandchildren to wear turbans and to pray toward Mecca five times a day.
Today instead of terrorist attacks on TV, we watched New York's new mayor give a lugubrious address in which he dwelt upon the victims of the attacks. After six months I'm afraid that the nation is lapsing into a victim mode. It's easier to be a victim than it is to be vengeful; all you have to do is look pathetic and hurt. Being vengeful takes effort. You have to look at what was done and feel the same rage over and over again, and rage is an exhausting emotion.
One good thing that has also happened, which is rare in war, is that the US military has rapidly reorganized to confront its new matrix of challenges. Usually that only occurs after a defeat or some lengthy period of time. But today the prospect of actually getting the Quadrennial Review acted upon are fairly high. At the end of Bush's first term, there is a high probability that the military will be in better shape to project US power than it was in 2000's end.
That said, I don't have any great idea if either the CIA or FBI are getting their feet on the ground in a substantive way to confront the challenges of 11 Sept. But then smoke and mirrors always was the atmosphere of many of the spooks' dealings. Posted by Tom Roberts 3/11/2002 7:04:59 PM
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03/11/2002 ||
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Airstrip One continues his invaluable Zim Watch. I'm on the edge of my seat. I have no idea how it will turn out: Will Mugabe steal it? Or are the people sick enough to vote so overwhelmingly to throw him out that he won't be able to fake it? Will they end up with competing governments? Mozambique appears to have one...
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03/11/2002 ||
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Fighter jets continued pounding Shah-i-Kot as hundreds of US soldiers descended from the mountains after a grueling battle against al-Qaida forces. American forces taking part in Operation Anaconda pledged to fight on until the last of the fighters had surrendered or died. Five US-allied Afghan soldiers were wounded in the last 24 hours, but coalition forces reported little fighting and no sustained fire from the al-Qaida holdouts. Afghan Commander Mohammed Ismail Khan said the al-Qaida are weak, but reaching them was a problem because of landmines. "We don't know how many are still alive. The bombing has been so strong I don't know how anyone can survive," said Khan. Presumably they're busted, but you don't know until you actually go pick through the rubble. If the rubble shoots at you, it's not all over yet.
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03/11/2002 ||
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US soldiers returning from the front lines expressed disappointment with one glaring absence: Afghan troops. According to pool reports from Shah-i-kot Valley, the original plan was for US soldiers to pull out after a couple days and be replaced by Afghan troops led by commander Zia Lodin. Zia Lodin and his troops never showed. Now we know, don't we? Sure do like those Northern Alliance boys. Tadjiks, Uzbeks, real nice fellows. And Hazaras, too. Don't forget them. Look better every day, in fact.
Zia Lodin attacked on the first day of the battle with about 400 to 450 men, not expecting to find the large numbers of enemy troops that were in the area. Zia's men were beaten back by a barrage of mortar and artillery fire -- losing three men and suffering 30 wounded. An American soldier, Chief Warrant Officer Stanley L. Harriman, 34, was also killed along with Zia's men. "He didn't suffer from a lack of nobility or bravery," an American spokesman said, referring to Zia. "He suffered from insufficient forces." He didn't come back, either, did he? He's probably on his way back right now, though, even as we speak...
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03/11/2002 ||
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The party of former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said it would cooperate with Afghanistan's U.S.-supported interim leader. Hekmatyar had opposed the new administration because it accepted foreign troops on Afghan soil. But the deputy leader of his Hezb-e-Islami party, Qutabuddin Hilal, said a delegation met recently with Hamid Karzai in Kabul to iron out differences. "The impression that we are opposed to Hamid Karzai's government in Kabul is wrong," Hilal told a news conference in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Hilal said Hekmatyar still wants U.S. and foreign troops out of the country and wants a national army to restore peace in the war-battered country. Hilal said the meeting with Karzai took place with the consent of Hekmatyar, who served prime minister in the fractious Afghan government that took power after the demise of the pro-Moscow regime in 1992. Sounds like the fix is in. Hekmatyar doesn't really support anyone but himself, so this would be purely a tactical move. It's probably a trade-off so he can reappear in Afghanistan and go back to work building his power base. He'll end his "support" when he feels like it, which will be when he's managed to buy enough Pashtun Islamonazi support to try and take over. Meanwhile, having Hekmatyar "behind" him makes Karzai himself suspect.
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03/11/2002 ||
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A former Taliban commander and brother of the ousted regimeâs border affairs minister who is wanted by the United States has surrendered to the Afghan authorities. Commander Mohammad Ibrahim, 47, accompanied by some 150 religious scholars and tribal elders from Khost, Paktia and Paktika provinces turned himself over to the authorities in Gardez. But Afghan Islamic Press (Not the most reliable source, by any means) said Ibrahim, whose elder brother Maulawi Jalaluddin Haqqani has been reported commanding at Shah-i-Kot was still in Gardez and was 'moving freely.' Ibrahim was associated with the 1992-96 regime of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani and later served as Taliban commander in several eastern provinces. Haqqani, a religious scholar who served as minister for border affairs, is on the US list of wanted Taliban leaders.
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03/11/2002 ||
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The US has offered to negotiate with opposition Afghan Mujahideen to secure the exchange of 18 of its captured soldiers, two of whom are thought to be senior US military officials. The sources disclosed that as soon as news of the arrest of the soldiers reached the Commander in charge of operation Anaconda, Gardez, Major General Franks, he immediately gave the order to halt the operation and ground US warplanes. He then sent a delegation of two senior military officials to meet the Governor of Paktika Wardaag to relay the offer to the Mujahideen commander, Mulla Saif ur Rehman Mansoor.
The US withdrew over 400 of its soldiers yesterday claiming that they have almost accomplished their mission to destroy the mujahideen concentration in Gardez. Mujahideen sources said that the Commander in Charge of Mujahideen in Gardez Mulla Saif ur Rehman Mansoor, has called a council meeting to discuss the American offer. Some Mujahideen sources said that they may demand freedom for all Afghan, Arab and Pakistani mujahideen currently being held at Camp X-Rayin Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In a separate incident a motorcycle troop of Mujahideen raided a US convoy in Tehsil Sarbi which is near to Tehsil Urgan of Paktika province. In this operation the Mujahideen successfully killed 6 US soldiers, escaping without harm. These guys lie to each other as much as they lie to us.
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03/11/2002 ||
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Countries that make such statements against Iran are "powers who want to have war," President Mohammad Khatami said as he began a three-day visit to Austria. "States shouldn't describe their opponents as evil but should fight the real evil, which is poverty, injustice, terrorism and violence," he said. Are there any of those evils that Iran doesn't possess?
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03/11/2002 ||
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Iran has dismissed a report by the U.S. daily New York Times claiming 12 Iranians had been arrested in Afghanistan for allegedly undermining the countryâs interim government. Denying the report, cabinet secretary Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, told a Tehran press conference that Iran has "no military presence in Afghanistan." For his part, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi said that "the news has no authenticity at all and no Iranian national has been arrested in Afghanistan." Denouncing the report as "poisonous propaganda and malicious adventurism", Assefi said, "Such propaganda ballyhoo and media stunts are aimed at exerting pressure on Iran and upsetting constructive cooperation between Tehran and Kabul. Cutting them loose, are they? "In the event you are captured or killed, Mr. Phelps, the Agency will deny any connection."
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The Georgian Defense Ministry has described as "deliberate misinformation" reports that U.S. military engineers are rebuilding the airfields in Marneuli and Alekseyevka to make them fit for receiving U.S. transport planes. The scheduled reconstruction and modernization of the Marneuli airfields is being done by Turkish experts and is to be completed in 2003. Concerning the Alekseyevka airfield outside Tbilisi, no repair work is being done there, they said. That would be stepping on the Russians toes. Let the Turks do it.
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03/11/2002 ||
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Pakistan's ISI was involved in at least 20 incidents of espionage, subversive activities and sabotage in West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee told the Assembly on Monday. Expressing concern at the spurt in activities of Pakistan's intelligence agency in the state since 1993-94, the Chief Minister said that 104 ISI agents and activists had so far been arrested and five awarded punishment. Busy little fellows, aren't they?
"East Pakistan will be ours again!"
Just as soon as we do something about this funny big Hindu autonomous zone in the way. Posted by lakefxdan 3/12/2002 3:00:03 AM
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The Jamaat-i-Islami launched a month-long 'message of Islam' campaign throughout the country. In the next two weeks, A door-to-door contact with masses will be initiated and pamphlets and booklets containing basic Islamic teaching will be distributed. The workers will also get themselves acquainted with the problems of various localities, while corner meetings and question-answer sessions will also be organized. In the last week, teams will visit their respective areas for inviting the people towards practising Islamic teachings. The drive will conclude on April 10. Kinda like 7th Day Aventists with turbans.
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03/11/2002 ||
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Jamaat-i-Islami fuehrer Qazi Husain Ahmad extended conditional support to the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League in the next general elections. Speaking at a reception hosted for him after his release from jug, he said his party wanted guarantees from the PPP and the PML that they would not repeat "past mistakes." Qazi demanded the people seeking JI cooperation must not look towards Gen Musharraf for reaching the power corridors. Pledging to end the difference between religious and political parties for launching a joint struggle for the restoration of constitutional rule, he said "our constitution will be Islam, democracy and federal government." The Qazi threatened to launch a mass movement if the religious and Jihadi leaders were not released. The beer hall Putsch is scheduled for March 23rd.
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03/11/2002 ||
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Chief of his faction of Jamiat ul Ulema-i-Islam and Chairman of Afghanistan Pakistan Defense Council Maulana Samiul Haq has said that it would be impossible for the United States to establish its influence in Afghanistan and her fate will not be different from the former Soviet Union. Though the USA with guns and bullets has succeeded in crushing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan it has earned hatred of Afghans and rest of the Muslim world. Flanked by his son Maulana Hamid-ul-Haq Haqqani, Sami said now the Afghans were realising that Taliban had established an unprecedented peace in all over Afghanistan. They're just sitting around waiting for the Talibs to come back and make things peaceful so they can start starving to death again. Those that don't get their heads cut off, anyway.
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03/11/2002 ||
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The Macedonian Justice Ministry says some 300 former rebels from the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (UCK) will be freed today in accordance with a new amnesty law. Justice Minister Ixhet Memeti today said the public prosecutor's office, courts, and jails will issue formal decisions ordering the rebels' release. The law, approved by the Macedonian parliament last week, frees several thousand insurgents from prosecution. The amnesty covers crimes including high treason, mutiny, armed rebellion, and conspiracy against the state. It is considered a key point of the Ohrid peace agreement signed last August, which put an end to a six-month ethnic Albanian insurgency. Keep a close eye on them, guys. And on their friends, too.
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03/11/2002 ||
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Zak Kamasho, waiting five hours with 2,000 other Zimbabweans seeking to vote, shook his fists and sneered at police who kept the gates to the polling station locked Monday. "You have guns. We have votes," he said. Unless you vote for Bob. And maybe if you don't.
A judge ordered voting be extended into a third day in Zimbabwe's presidential election, but six hours after the school-turned-polling station was to open, the gates were still locked. Opposition officials accused Mugabe's government of delaying the opening of polls to disenfranchise voters in urban areas like Harare, an opposition stronghold. The large voter turnout was taken as a sign of support for Tsvangirai. They were busy reprinting the ballots in Urdu. But don't worry. They very helpfully checked the boxes for them. Morgan's gonna need a big turnout to counteract all those ballot boxes that were filled ahead of time.
The crowd seethed with anger and settled down only after the polling station's election officer Charles Mabeka received orders to reopen the station at noon. "I was told not to start until we got the order. We have been ready since 7 a.m.," he said. "So why don't all you nice people go home, and I'll call you when we're ready, okay?"
Peter Gede, a businessman, scoffed at the explanation, calling the reason for the delay obvious. "(The government is) trying to rig it. They are trying to stop us from voting ... they are desperate and frightened," said Gede. Bob's probably got the plane warming up with the national treasury and the wifelet already on board. All those other poor sods are looking at somebody else's cousins getting their jobs.
Under the baking noon sun, women found shelter under umbrellas. The line thickened under the shade of a curbside tree. But police soon ushered voters back into single file lines. "I am fed up. If I hadn't made up my mind, I wouldn't support Mugabe after this," said Michael Chivi, an unemployed father of two who spent the night outside the school. Is it just me, or does it sound like this goober is going to support Bob whether the cops beat him up and make him stand in the sun or not?
Chivi said that when news trickled through Sunday night that voting had been extended, police came brandishing riot sticks and drove voters out of the school yard and locked the gates despite promises voting would continue into the night. They threatened to "spread tear gas if we didn't go home," he said. Wait and see the nice things they do if Bob somehow loses. And if he doesn't, it'll be even worse. Somehow I can't see them saying, "Okay, Morgan. You won fair and square. What do you want us to do now?"
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03/11/2002 ||
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Ruling party militants tied the hands of local election observer Joseph Dladla behind his back and beat him with iron bars at a polling in the city of Bulawayo.
Local election observers were attacked by ruling party militants in Centenary and had to be rescued by Commonwealth monitors.
Three local election observers, including two women, were told to remove the T-shirts that identified them and were then beaten in the Kekwe Urban district.
Ruling party militants in Hurungwe attacked three poll workers representing the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in Hurungwe.
An unspecified number of poll workers were abducted from a station in Muzaranbani.
In the Gokwe North region, there were reports of bogus polling stations being set up and helicopters flying ballot boxes in and out of the area. Opposition representatives were cleared from the region and several were arrested. They're making Chicago and St. Louis look like honest operations. It doesn't sound like Bob's side expects to lose.
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03/11/2002 ||
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Israel lifted Yasser Arafat's three-month confinement in the West Bank town of Ramallah, but also expanded its military offensive on Monday with a pair of large-scale raids, rounding up more than 1,000 Palestinian men for interrogation. Five Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire. Bad move. Shoulda left him there until he died of old age or one of his minions shot him.
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03/11/2002 ||
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Oil-rich monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) backed peaceful 'coexistence' between the Arabs and Israel at a meeting of their foreign ministers in Riyadh. In a statement issued at the end of the talks, the ministers hailed the land-for-peace proposal of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and pledged to strive to muster the support of the international community for the offer. The GCC chief diplomats said they would lobby the UN Security Council, the United States, the European Union and Russia to 'preserve the chances of peace and stop the bloodshed and devastation' of the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But Arab diplomats said in Cairo on Sunday that Riyadh had agreed to a Syrian request during an Arab foreign ministers meeting in the Egyptian capital to offer 'full peace,' rather than normalization, in exchange for withdrawal.
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03/11/2002 ||
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Six persons, including two security personnel and three Hizbul Mujahideen, were killed in separate incidents across Kashmir. Security forces also apprehended two suspects.
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03/11/2002 ||
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A Pakistani militant wanted for the murders of 38 people, including a former foreign minister, was killed in a gun battle with police. The shootout that killed Shakeel Anwar was part of a wave of violence involving rival Muslim groups. The clashes killed six other people -- a policeman and five Shiites Muslims.
Anwar, leader of the outlawed Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was killed in eastern Punjab province after he fired on a police patrol. He was wanted in the killings of scores of Shiites and in the 1997 fatal shooting of Mohammed Ali Rahimi, director of an Iranian cultural center in Multan. Anwar also was sought in last July's slaying of former Foreign Minister Mohammed Siddque Kanju, who was shot dead along with another former legislator during an election campaign in Punjab. He was also suspected in the Oct. 28 attack on a Christian church in Behawalpur in which 15 worshippers and a Muslim guard were slain. Somebody else will take his place. The cops have his predecessor in custody - maybe they'll let him out on good behavior to take over again.
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03/11/2002 ||
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The U.S. military has shipped unmanned spy planes to the Philippines to take part in anti-terrorism training exercises aimed at wiping out a group holding two Americans. The Gnat UAVs -- which are similar to the Predator drones being used in Afghanistan -- would give "that extra edge" to the Philippine military, said Maj. Cynthia Teramae, spokeswoman for the U.S. contingent.
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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.
