So the first strike in the long war against terrorism has begun. The US-British blitz of targets in Afghanistan last night involved some of the world’s most modern weapons. No point in blaming that they are being used against one of the world’s least developed nations. Even the most technologically advanced nations will find it difficult to produce weapons to suit the level of development of an enemy country.
Right now, America and Britain are pounding air defenses of Afghanistan’s ruling Taleban and training camps of Osama Bin Laden, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. About 50 Tomahawk missiles, each costing about $1 million, were fired from land-based bombers, US and British submarines and surface ships to disrupt targets in that impoverished South Asian country.
Nobody could feign surprise at yesterday’s developments. The world has been expecting something like this for the last 26 days — ever since the horror of Sept. 11 which witnessed not only the destruction of the twin towers of World Trade Center but also the carnage of thousands of innocents.
The evidence linking Bin Laden and Taleban to last month’s happenings may not stand scrutiny in a court of law, but there is broad agreement that they provide enough grounds for some punitive measures. And those who could mount the type of sophisticated operations which New York and Washington witnessed should be expected to cover their tracks. In any case the Taleban was given enough time and opportunity to do something to assuage the wounded pride of Americans and avoid a bigger catastrophe. So everybody would voice regret, as Pakistan did yesterday, that its diplomatic efforts with the Taleban had failed to avert military strikes. Now one can only hope that the action will be swift and spare innocents.
By innocents we mean not merely Afghans. President Bush made a live television address a few minutes after the strikes began. The bombing, he said, was aimed at Bin Laden and the Taleban, but spoke of a “broader” battle directed against any government which continues to sponsor terrorism.
“Every nation has a choice to make. In this conflict, there is no neutral ground,” the president said.
Maybe there is no neutral ground, but there are treacherous territories. Among President Bush’s advisers are people who take the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a blank check to move against those countries in the Middle East they don’t like — for example, Iran, Syria, Iraq and Libya. And they have dropped enough hints that left to themselves they would complete all “unfinished business” (whatever that may mean) in this part of the world.
For President Bush to play into the hands of such people with hidden (or Israeli) agenda would be to play into the hands of the very terrorists he wants to decimate. Cruise missiles can destroy pharmaceutical firms but they are no match to elusive terrorists. Given the terrain of Afghanistan, it may not be easy to capture Bin Laden even if ground troops are deployed. This should not be a pretext for a prolonged campaign of bombings against Afghanistan.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said yesterday that “life goes on as normal in New York” despite the US strikes in Afghanistan. President Bush should realize that in this part of the world, life will not “go on as normal” if the operations continue indefinitely and widen to include other countries.
