Word: ramadan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...will be neither, and the incident last week in which a U.S. Special Forces helicopter took ground fire near a base inside Pakistan highlighted the potential domestic crisis General Musharraf faces for offering his support. Not surprisingly, the general is urging the U.S. to end its bombing campaign by Ramadan. The same demand has been echoed at the opposite end of the region's political spectrum, by the Northern Alliance. And there is little doubt that if bombs are falling on Afghanistan during the Muslim holy month that begins on November 17, there will be a sharp uptick in anti...
...There are meteorological concerns, too. The first winter snows are expected to more or less coincide with Ramadan, and famine relief groups such as Christian Aid, Oxfam and others working in Afghanistan have called for a pause in U.S. bombing in order to be able to deliver food to millions of vulnerable Afghanis before the snows make roads impassable. The U.S. and Britain have blamed the Taliban for impeding food distribution and Admiral Stufflebeem even warned Wednesday that the Taliban was planning to poison U.S. food aid packages and blame any resultant deaths on the donors...
...planned to provoke a ground war in Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden's September 11 terror strikes were perfectly timed. It is clear that the onset of the harsh Afghan winter and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan create formidable political-military obstacles to the pursuit of American goals, particularly against the backdrop of the complex and even contradictory political objectives guiding the military action. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday called on the Northern Alliance to begin advancing on Kabul, with the objective not of capturing the city but of "investing" it - a military term for laying siege that...
...into the winter. Even if they lose Mazari al-Sharif, they're unlikely to be routed before then. And while the winter snows that are expected within weeks won't preclude U.S. air strikes and special forces operations, they may prevent a decisive Northern Alliance offensive before next spring. Ramadan, too, will make it more difficult for the U.S. to maintain its air campaign for fear of jeopardizing both its coalition and its political objectives inside Afghanistan. And the humanitarian crisis that sees millions facing starvation will intensify with the onset of winter, adding to the political pressure...
...commanders insist they can move on Kabul at any time, even without airstrikes on Taliban front lines. Other officers worry that any delay will allow the Taliban to reveal their positions in Kabul and restore their morale. Time, in other words, is running out. Ramadan is less than a month away, and more importantly, so is winter, when military operations are severely hampered. Some commanders, when pushed - Azimi, for example - still predict an advance on Kabul in the next week or so. But, they sound neither convinced nor convincing. Alliance political leaders meanwhile deny any external interference in their planning...