War on terrorism sinks deeper in the mire

US intelligence officials and high-ranking military officers have told the highly respected investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, that thousands of regular Pakistani troops were indeed flown out of the besieged city of Kunduz in November 2001 to safety in a series of night-time air-lifts that were directly approved by the Bush Administration. The United States officers also said that what was supposed to be a limited evacuation apparently slipped out of control and as an unintended consequence, an unknown number of Taliban and Al Qa'ida fighters succeeded in joining in the exodus. '"Dirt got through the screen," a senior US intelligence official told me' said Hersh. This is just part of a quite scandalous misleading of the worlds news media by the military and intelligence spin doctors in Washington and 'grandstanding' senior politicians in both the US and UK seeking to gain a little extra credibility by association with a 'victory'.

Both Pakistan and Iran are double dealing

The truth appears to be that the Pakistan Government, ISI and senior military figures connived to rescue as many Taliban as possible, to enable the remaining Al Qa'ida to escape and to cover up the part played by upto 10,000 regular Pakistan troops in the Taliban armed forces. In addition Iran, far from being a neutral in the Afghanistan campaign, remains a leading player in international terrorism and maintained close links with certain members of the Taliban regime. 
Iran was to provide the main escape route for thousands of Al Qa'ida (Al Qaeda) fighters, many of whom are now safely back in Saudi Arabia or worse still in the occupied Gaza Strip, West bank or with Hezbollah in the Lebanon. It is also important to remember that many of Al Qa'ida's (Al Qaeda) leading figures and the vast majority of those trained in Afghanistan evacuated the camps and scattered throughout the Middle East, Chenchnya, South East Asia and Europe before the September 11th attacks on the United States.

Taliban down but not out

The US probably dropped five million pounds or more of explosives on Afghanistan and claims the air war was an outstanding success. Unfortunately the truth is not quite so clear cut. True the Taliban were ousted from power, but only to be replaced by a rabble of petty Warlords, many guilty of appalling crimes against humanity in past campaigns. The only reason they have not been arrested to face the same justice as Milosevic is that they are, at least for now, useful to Washington. How long this will remain so must be in doubt as fighting has already occurred between the Uzbeks and the Tajiks of the Northern alliance.

Indeed, the Taliban themselves have not yet been fully defeated. The London Times has reported that units of the Taliban as large as 5,000 strong with tanks, armoured personnel carriers and artillery are still at large. In fact, it would seem that upto 20,000 Taliban Fighters are still operational with the best part of 500 armoured vehicles and artillery and the 100 or so short range battlefield rockets not used in the conflict so far. While thousands of 'reformed' Taliban have been recruited into the new national Afghan Army providing a ready made 'fifth column' for the next round of fighting. As AFI Research correctly predicted last September the Taliban did not seriously defend the cities and withdrew many of their best fighters and most modern equipment to ready prepared mountain positions, leaving the poorly trained local militia's to hinder the opposition and take the brunt of the American air attacks. 

This is a war for oil and influence, terrorism is a side issue 

The War on Terrorism is now nearly five months old and it is in a mess. Little of long-term value in fighting terrorism has really been achieved if you look past the smoke screen of official misinformation. This isn't the real issue, however. Much more importantly the United States has decided that the Islamic world is not to be trusted, its main allies remain Britain, Israel, Turkey and increasingly India. The Arab nations simply do not and in the view of many Washington analysts, never will provide the geostrategic stability the United States deems necessary in a post-Cold War environment. Of paramount importance in Washington's calculations is the continuing availability and security of oil supplies. This is the bottom line and Washington firmly, though not of course publicly believes that these can only be reasonably guaranteed by placing them under the 'protection' of the United States. If this means restructuring the Middle East, then so be it. And who can say that they may not be right. 

Richard M. Bennett