Word: cave
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...then there is--apart from the skinning alive--Afghanistan's most frightening contribution to modern warfare: the cave. Afghanistan's limestone cliffs are honeycombed with them, many with multiple entrances and all of them capable of being booby-trapped. Pentagon officials are convinced that bin Laden and his top associates are holed up in caves and that they might move to a different one every day. Some are big enough to be seen in satellite images, and the Air Force has already targeted them. EGBU-28 bunker-buster bombs can drill like masonry bits through 20 ft. of stone before...
...that's if the Americans get lucky. Whereas U.S. special forces have recently revised their training for the sort of urban jungles they had to cope with in Mogadishu, there has been little or no training for Afghanistan's terrain. "We're going to figure out this cave business as we go along," says a former special-forces commando. In much the same way, they will figure out what to do if they catch up with bin Laden or another al-Qaeda leader. In that event, the special forces would have to choose between a "snatch-and-grab" mission--tossing...
...expect that it would come so soon or that the weapon of choice would be videotape. About an hour after the bombing campaign began, Americans were dumbstruck to see the placid face of the enemy, Osama bin Laden, in their living rooms. Outside a secret cave hideout, a Kalashnikov rifle beside him, he directly challenged the official U.S. line by casting the fight, in flowery classical Arabic, as one between Islam and the West. "America," he said, "will never taste security and safety unless we feel security and safety in our land...
...CAVE BUSTERS The limestone cliffs of Afghanistan are honeycombed with caves and tunnels, some quite extensive. Here's how the U.S. will take the fight--and the search for bin Laden--underground...
...Until American commandos actually capture or kill their prized prey, guessing where bin Laden has made his cave or whether the U.S. will find it will remain a fool's game. But the arrival of ground forces on the scene has at least returned some clarity of purpose to a campaign that was starting to get lost in the fog. For now, discussions on less immediate matters--like what shape a post-Taliban government should take or whether states such as Iraq and Syria should be targeted for their past complicity in international terrorism--will be held behind curtains. Domestic...