Word: rumsfeld
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...what are Donald Rumsfeld's targets once Afghanistan is over? Ask anyone at the Pentagon and they'll simply remind you that Afghanistan is far from over, and may not be for some time yet. Still, with President Bush dangling hints that Saddam Hussein will face the consequences if he doesn't allow arms inspectors back in and U.S. officials starting to mention the likes of Sudan, Yemen and Somalia, it's clear the administration is considering its next step...
...more powerful foreign force from redoubts in the mountains, where tanks can't go and helicopters crash. The surviving Taliban could still withdraw to avoid the hellfire of American strikes and then spring ambushes on towns and villages below. "They can defect, change their mind and go back," Rumsfeld said. "It is not possible to answer the question as to the circumstance of the Taliban." But their divisions are scattered, their hard-core fighters are few?Pakistani sources say 2,000 members, at most, of Omar's 50,000-strong force are still active near Kandahar?and the regime...
...Taliban and al-Qaeda. Last Tuesday, armed with fresh intelligence reports on the whereabouts of key Taliban and al-Qaeda figures, the Pentagon began attacking buildings in Kabul and Kandahar in which they were believed to be hiding. At least one strike nailed its target: on Friday, Rumsfeld said he had seen "authoritative reports" that the U.S. had killed Atef, al-Qaeda's military chief. Atef had intimate ties to bin Laden through his daughter's marriage to bin Laden's son and was seen as the cold-blooded strategist charged with carrying out bin Laden's deadly visions...
...Possibly. But it could just as easily suggest they're desperate that he may be slipping from their grasp. So it's too soon to make that claim. As Secretary Rumsfeld says, we'll know where he is when we've got him. And the U.S. has had sufficient capability in the area for some time that if the military knew where bin Laden was, they could get him in two hours. Having a Marine base near Kandahar shortens the timeline required to get hundreds of men to his location if it becomes known...
...Marines are never a long-term deployment. They're equipped and outfitted for 30 days. Plainly, they can stay longer, but it's not the Army that's going in here. As Rumsfeld has made clear, the U.S. has no desire to hang onto any piece of Afghan real estate. Once the mission is accomplished, they'll depart...