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Muahahhaha... spoken like true losers~
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WASHINGTON/KABUL (Reuters) - Both the United States and the Taliban invoked history on Monday in their war rhetoric -- Washington to defend fighting during Ramadan and the Afghan rulers to show why the superpower would retreat in defeat.
As U.S. warplanes pounded Taliban and al Qaeda targets for a 30th day, Voice of America radio broadcast a government statement saying Muslims had themselves often waged war during their holy month, starting in the seventh century.
Washington said Ramadan, which begins in two weeks, would not force a suspension of the war it launched on Oct. 7 to crush the al Qaeda network it blames for the Sept. 11 attacks that killed about 4,800 people in America.
``As this year's observance of Ramadan approaches, the U.S. and other countries, including Muslim countries, are concerned about further terrorist attacks,'' said the statement on VOA, broadcast in 53 languages including the main Afghan ones.
``The coalition has no choice but to go to the source of the terrorism in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and to root out terrorist groups elsewhere,'' it said. ``As President Bush (news - web sites) put it, 'the enemy won't rest during Ramadan, and neither will we.'''
In Kabul, the Taliban's top spokesman, Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told a news conference the movement did not expect Washington to suspend hostilities for Ramadan.
``We have no expectation of any sympathy or humanitarian sense from America,'' he said.
Muttaqi said the war would be long but invoked recent history to predict ultimate disaster for the United States.
U.S. WARNED OF ``FIASCO''
``This power that the world calls a mighty force will face fiasco. They need to consult the Russians and the British about their defeats here,'' Muttaqi said, referring to the Afghan massacre of British colonial troops in the 19th century and the humiliation of the Soviet army in their 1979-89 occupation.
He challenged the United States, which has conducted the war from the air except for one known hit-and-run ground raid by paratroopers last month, to send in combat troops.
``If they have the strength and if their soldiers are not men used to a soft life, why are they not fighting face-to-face?'' he asked.
Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem signaled the Taliban would get their wish to take on American troops at close quarters. ``There are very few of us who believe this will be done solely by air power,'' he told reporters.
Stufflebeem said U.S. military teams were checking airfields in Tajikistan and other countries in the region to see if they could serve as bases for increasing air strikes.
Strikes launched from nearby land bases would achieve more than the raids now being carried out from Navy carriers and by long-range bombers, he said.
Rockets fired from U.S. aircraft struck a hotel and vehicle used by Taliban fighters in Kabul on Monday, littering the street with wreckage and body parts.
The sound of helicopters was heard before the rockets slammed into the hotel just before dawn, which would mark a change in U.S. tactics from using high-flying jets in the campaign.
Sunday's sorties struck in five planned target areas, including cave and tunnel complexes and front-line Taliban forces arrayed against the local opposition, Stufflebeem said.
Photos
Reuters Photo
He said increasingly heavy strikes by U.S. bombers and other warplanes on Taliban positions around the northern key crossroads city Mazar-i-Sharif and the capital Kabul were ''preparing the battlefield'' for when opposition Northern Alliance forces launch offensives to capture those cities.
Stufflebeem said the U.S. military had only anecdotal evidence that its bombing campaign was weakening Taliban protection of Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif, but had seen no Taliban response to opposition fire for ``a matter of days.''
TALIBAN 'HUNKERED DOWN'?
``My guess is that would be because they're either hunkered down and aren't coming out ... or they're not able to fire,'' he said. ``So I think that's a very positive sign.''
The United States bolstered its efforts in the diplomatic arena by appointing a seasoned envoy, Ambassador James Dobbins, as its representative to the Afghan opposition and calling in retired ambassador Christopher Ross to put the U.S. point of view in Arabic to television audiences in the Middle East.
The State Department has given Ross the title of special adviser as part of attempts to persuade Arabs and Muslims that bombing Afghanistan is a legitimate response to the Sept. 11 attacks in which hijacked aircraft were rammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Dobbins would ``continue our work with the Afghan opposition groups, the Afghan parties, to try to help them form a future government for Afghanistan''.
President Bush himself joined the offensive to shore up support for the U.S. offensive, which has been criticized particularly in Muslim countries for taking too high a toll on civilians.
Bush held talks in the Oval Office with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria on Monday and will meet leaders from Kuwait and Morocco later this week.
The White House expressed new optimism about efforts to contain the spread of anthrax even as additional spores were found at a Pentagon post office.
ANTHRAX THREAT SEEN EASING
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said it was a positive sign that no new infections were reported over the weekend and that several suspected anthrax cases turned out to be false alarms.
The U.S. statement on continuing the war during Ramadan touched on the Soviet humiliation in Afghanistan, citing the mujahideen anti-occupation fight as one of the wars from history that had not paused for the fasting month.
``In truth, the U.S. is far from alone in realizing that there can be no pause when fighting for survival,'' it said.
``During Ramadan in the year 624, the Muslim Prophet Mohammed was victorious in the Battle of Badr. Mohammed also began a campaign to reclaim the holy city of Mecca during Ramadan,'' it added.
It said Muslims had often fought wars during the fasting month or on days sacred to other faiths. This included a surprise attack launched by Egypt and Syria against Israel on Oct. 6, 1973, the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday.
Voice of America boasts an audience of 80 percent of adult males in Afghanistan, where television is outlawed under the Taliban leadership's extreme interpretation of Islam.
--------------------------------
WASHINGTON/KABUL (Reuters) - Both the United States and the Taliban invoked history on Monday in their war rhetoric -- Washington to defend fighting during Ramadan and the Afghan rulers to show why the superpower would retreat in defeat.
As U.S. warplanes pounded Taliban and al Qaeda targets for a 30th day, Voice of America radio broadcast a government statement saying Muslims had themselves often waged war during their holy month, starting in the seventh century.
Washington said Ramadan, which begins in two weeks, would not force a suspension of the war it launched on Oct. 7 to crush the al Qaeda network it blames for the Sept. 11 attacks that killed about 4,800 people in America.
``As this year's observance of Ramadan approaches, the U.S. and other countries, including Muslim countries, are concerned about further terrorist attacks,'' said the statement on VOA, broadcast in 53 languages including the main Afghan ones.
``The coalition has no choice but to go to the source of the terrorism in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and to root out terrorist groups elsewhere,'' it said. ``As President Bush (news - web sites) put it, 'the enemy won't rest during Ramadan, and neither will we.'''
In Kabul, the Taliban's top spokesman, Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told a news conference the movement did not expect Washington to suspend hostilities for Ramadan.
``We have no expectation of any sympathy or humanitarian sense from America,'' he said.
Muttaqi said the war would be long but invoked recent history to predict ultimate disaster for the United States.
U.S. WARNED OF ``FIASCO''
``This power that the world calls a mighty force will face fiasco. They need to consult the Russians and the British about their defeats here,'' Muttaqi said, referring to the Afghan massacre of British colonial troops in the 19th century and the humiliation of the Soviet army in their 1979-89 occupation.
He challenged the United States, which has conducted the war from the air except for one known hit-and-run ground raid by paratroopers last month, to send in combat troops.
``If they have the strength and if their soldiers are not men used to a soft life, why are they not fighting face-to-face?'' he asked.
Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem signaled the Taliban would get their wish to take on American troops at close quarters. ``There are very few of us who believe this will be done solely by air power,'' he told reporters.
Stufflebeem said U.S. military teams were checking airfields in Tajikistan and other countries in the region to see if they could serve as bases for increasing air strikes.
Strikes launched from nearby land bases would achieve more than the raids now being carried out from Navy carriers and by long-range bombers, he said.
Rockets fired from U.S. aircraft struck a hotel and vehicle used by Taliban fighters in Kabul on Monday, littering the street with wreckage and body parts.
The sound of helicopters was heard before the rockets slammed into the hotel just before dawn, which would mark a change in U.S. tactics from using high-flying jets in the campaign.
Sunday's sorties struck in five planned target areas, including cave and tunnel complexes and front-line Taliban forces arrayed against the local opposition, Stufflebeem said.
Photos
Reuters Photo
He said increasingly heavy strikes by U.S. bombers and other warplanes on Taliban positions around the northern key crossroads city Mazar-i-Sharif and the capital Kabul were ''preparing the battlefield'' for when opposition Northern Alliance forces launch offensives to capture those cities.
Stufflebeem said the U.S. military had only anecdotal evidence that its bombing campaign was weakening Taliban protection of Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif, but had seen no Taliban response to opposition fire for ``a matter of days.''
TALIBAN 'HUNKERED DOWN'?
``My guess is that would be because they're either hunkered down and aren't coming out ... or they're not able to fire,'' he said. ``So I think that's a very positive sign.''
The United States bolstered its efforts in the diplomatic arena by appointing a seasoned envoy, Ambassador James Dobbins, as its representative to the Afghan opposition and calling in retired ambassador Christopher Ross to put the U.S. point of view in Arabic to television audiences in the Middle East.
The State Department has given Ross the title of special adviser as part of attempts to persuade Arabs and Muslims that bombing Afghanistan is a legitimate response to the Sept. 11 attacks in which hijacked aircraft were rammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Dobbins would ``continue our work with the Afghan opposition groups, the Afghan parties, to try to help them form a future government for Afghanistan''.
President Bush himself joined the offensive to shore up support for the U.S. offensive, which has been criticized particularly in Muslim countries for taking too high a toll on civilians.
Bush held talks in the Oval Office with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria on Monday and will meet leaders from Kuwait and Morocco later this week.
The White House expressed new optimism about efforts to contain the spread of anthrax even as additional spores were found at a Pentagon post office.
ANTHRAX THREAT SEEN EASING
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said it was a positive sign that no new infections were reported over the weekend and that several suspected anthrax cases turned out to be false alarms.
The U.S. statement on continuing the war during Ramadan touched on the Soviet humiliation in Afghanistan, citing the mujahideen anti-occupation fight as one of the wars from history that had not paused for the fasting month.
``In truth, the U.S. is far from alone in realizing that there can be no pause when fighting for survival,'' it said.
``During Ramadan in the year 624, the Muslim Prophet Mohammed was victorious in the Battle of Badr. Mohammed also began a campaign to reclaim the holy city of Mecca during Ramadan,'' it added.
It said Muslims had often fought wars during the fasting month or on days sacred to other faiths. This included a surprise attack launched by Egypt and Syria against Israel on Oct. 6, 1973, the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday.
Voice of America boasts an audience of 80 percent of adult males in Afghanistan, where television is outlawed under the Taliban leadership's extreme interpretation of Islam.
