[iwar] [fc:U.S..Predicting.Fight.Will.Last.Well.Into.Spring]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-22 07:23:24
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 07:23:24 -0700 (PDT)
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Los Angeles Times
October 22, 2001
U.S. Predicting Fight Will Last Well Into Spring
Military: Joint Chiefs chairman says forces are prepared for winter combat.
Planes strike Taliban troops north of Afghan capital. Pentagon identifies
two soldiers killed in crash.
By Peter Pae, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- Top Bush administration officials warned Sunday that the
military campaign in Afghanistan could continue well into the spring and
beyond, raising the prospect of winter fighting for American troops.
"This is going to be a very, very long campaign," said Air Force Gen.
Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an interview on
ABC's "This Week." "It may take till next spring. It may take till next
summer. It may take longer than that in Afghanistan."
As the airstrikes continued into a third week and included attacks on the
Taliban regime's troops, Myers also warned that while U.S. forces would take
terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden alive if possible, "bullets will fly" if
necessary.
"It depends on the circumstances," Myers said. "If it's a defensive
situation, then you know, bullets will fly. But if we can capture somebody,
then we'll do that."
In northern Afghanistan, U.S. warplanes launched their closest strikes yet
to Taliban troops near the front line north of Kabul, the Afghan capital.
Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighters struck Taliban forces dug in close to the
strategic Bagram air base for about an hour and were heard circling over the
area again less than four hours later.
The opposition Northern Alliance has repeatedly said it plans to surround
Taliban troops along the Bagram front by launching a ground offensive.
In an interview with CNN, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the Bush
administration was in discussions with the Northern Alliance about the fate
of Kabul and another Taliban-held city, Mazar-i-Sharif, near the border with
Uzbekistan.
"We're very interested in seeing them take the town in the north,
Mazar-i-Sharif, and I'm quite confident that they want to at least invest
Kabul," he said. "Whether they actually go into Kabul or not, or whether
that's the best thing to do or not, remains to be seen."
The loss of Mazar-i-Sharif, where fighting has been intense, could seriously
disrupt the Taliban's links to other northern areas and open up a new route
to Kabul.
The Northern Alliance forces near Kabul have been eagerly awaiting U.S.
airstrikes so they can advance. They are reportedly 35 miles from the
capital, and perhaps closer.
But U.S. warplanes had so far held off, apparently in deference to Pakistan,
a key U.S. ally that opposes an advance on Kabul by the mainly ethnic Uzbek
and Tajik opposition at the expense of the Pushtun, the largest ethnic
group. A majority of the Taliban's members and a sizable portion of
Pakistan's population are Pushtun.
Powell said it "would be in our interest and the interest of the coalition
to see this matter resolved before winter strikes and it makes our
operations that much more difficult."
Indeed, U.S. officials are not only facing the military challenge of
continuing the conflict during winter, when snow and cloud cover could pose
problems for ground troops, but also the delicate diplomatic issue of the
upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Indonesia warned U.S. officials Sunday that there would be "explosive"
consequences in the Islamic world if the military strikes stretched into the
holy month, which starts Nov. 17. Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim
population.
But Powell said that while he was mindful of the religious significance of
Ramadan, "we also have to make sure that we pursue our campaign."
"We'll have to see where the mission is at that point and what needs to be
done and would yield to my colleagues in the Pentagon as to what we will do
as we approach the season of Ramadan," he said.
However, neither Ramadan nor winter will deter the Northern Alliance from
making its long-awaited move on Kabul, said Gen. Abdul Basir, a top
commander with the opposition forces.
"We are going to get rid of the Taliban and we are ready to do it, whether
it is Ramadan or some other time," he said. "The Taliban is dangerous for
the whole world."
Myers, in a briefing with reporters last week, insisted that U.S. troops are
prepared to fight through all types of weather, including the frigid Afghan
winter. "We have an all-weather force," he said.
With advances in reconnaissance and surveillance equipment that can see
through clouds and darkness, as well as bombs and missiles guided by
satellite-based global positioning systems, the weather should have little
impact on airstrikes, analysts said.
U.S. troops also do "a lot of cold-weather training," said Eliot A. Cohen,
of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.
"There are many units that are trained to fight in the harsh winter," he
said, citing a Marine contingent in northern Norway and the Army's 10th
Mountain Division, which has troops based in Uzbekistan.
However, winter could hamper the large-scale movements of opposition forces,
said Michael Vickers, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary
Assessment.
"The more serious strategic issue is how it slows down the Afghan
opposition," said Vickers, a former member of the Navy SEALs, a special
operations force. "Supporting them becomes a major logistical endeavor."
In other developments Sunday, the Taliban decided to hand out more rocket
launchers, heavy machine guns and antiaircraft guns in towns, villages and
districts across the country to counter U.S. ground raids, Taliban Education
Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told Reuters.
Myers denied claims by the Taliban that its forces had shot down a U.S.
helicopter near the Afghan city of Kandahar and killed 25 American soldiers.
"I think that is the Taliban wishing for some good news," Myers said. "That
is not correct."
Myers also acknowledged the difficulty of locating Saudi militant Bin Laden,
despite a report that top U.S. intelligence officials had pinned down his
location to a 20-by-20-mile area in Afghanistan. However, the Newsweek
report acknowledged that the area was so full of caves and tunnels that U.S.
officials said it was "impossible to seal."
"We have not been able to pinpoint exactly where all these
command-and-control facilities are. We continue to look," Myers said.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon identified the two U.S. soldiers who died when their
Black Hawk helicopter crashed in neighboring Pakistan after providing search
and rescue support to special forces involved in a raid on Kandahar early
Saturday.
The two soldiers were Spc. Jonn J. Edmunds, 20, of Cheyenne, Wyo., and Pfc.
Kristofor T. Stonesifer, 28, of Missoula, Mont., both of whom were
passengers in the helicopter. The men were assigned to B Company, 3rd
Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment stationed at Fort Benning, Ga. They
were the first U.S. fatalities directly tied to combat since the military
operation began Oct. 7.
Defense officials said they were still investigating the cause of the
helicopter crash, although they believe the heavy dust cloud created by the
chopper's rotating blades during landing probably contributed to the
incident. Despite claims by the Taliban that it had shot down the
helicopter, the Pentagon ruled out hostile fire as a cause of the crash.
Lt. Col. Jim Clegg, head of the University of Montana's military science
program, said that Stonesifer entered the ROTC in the fall of 1999. "He was
one of my top two cadets," Clegg said in a telephone interview. "But . . . I
don't think we were intense enough for him. I don't think we were moving
fast enough to keep him busy."
Clegg said that he and others tried to talk Stonesifer out of enlisting in
the Army last year, urging him to complete the ROTC program and join the
military as an officer. "But becoming a commissioned officer wasn't
necessarily what he wanted to do," Clegg said.
Another ROTC colleague, J.C. Schneider, said Stonesifer "was just a ball of
energy, always an inspiration to be around. . . . He joined the Rangers
because that's what he wanted to do. He wanted to rappel out of helicopters
and sneak around the corners of buildings. Moving in a small group to attack
a bunker or set up an ambush, Stonesifer loved that stuff."
Tim Woodard, who taught Edmunds driver's education at East High School in
Cheyenne, remembered him as "a very nice young man who never caused any
trouble."
Woodard, who coaches various sports at the school, said Edmunds could always
be found playing whatever sport was in season.
"He was very, very competitive, he enjoyed competing," Woodard said.
Times staff writer Paul Watson in Ashkarga, Afghanistan, and Kim Murphy in
Seattle contributed to this report. 

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