<HTML>Hi Claire,
> This link might also be of interest?
Thanks again.
> Did you see the news this morning? The Pakistan government
> have deployed troops along it's border and closed their
> airspace. This business might become academic soon,
> presumably the Pakistan govt are taking the threat issued at
> the weekend by the Taleban seriously - and are preparing for
> the chance of attack. Or I could have got that all wrong :-)
I doubt if Pakistan will make any moves before the US, UK and any NATO forces arrive there.
> >>We'd be very naive to think that a war on Afghanistan will
> put an end to international terrorism.
>
> In The Sunday Times reported that in a survey of 24 suicide
> bombers 19 had either been to university or college (and were
> thus likely to have access to financial resources too). What
> will end international terrorism do you think?
I don't think you can exterminate terrorism completely. We can only quash the main players and reduce the broader effects of it. The "war on terrorism" is unlikely to be directed towards the real IRA or ETA is it? Its a political phrase being used to justify a campaign on Afghanistan and specifically bin Laden but we'd be foolish to think that he's the only player. What can we do to ensure that nobody else replaces him and coordinates further attacks?
The 1993 WTC car bomb was designed using a CIA bomb manual. So as long as western governments also continue to support terrorism and guerillas we cannot pass the blame solely onto the nations that harbor terrorists.
I don't think
> that this eradicating poverty talk covers it.
Its a more complicated problem than any of us can envisage. Most of the worlds problems can be attributed to poverty and its not as if a solution is forthcoming.
Bin Laden
> see's glory in killing Americans because they are on Saudi
> soil. And of course these terrorists object to Israel and
> blame the US for aiding them. So what do we do? Abandon
> Israel to these guys? Remove our troops defending Saudi and
> Kuwait from Iraq?
Of course not. However we have to realise that bombing campaigns in Tripoli, Baghdad and Kabul have done little to stamp out the threat and far more to instigate hatred within militant Islamic factions. The root problem seems to be Israel though and perhaps we could have done more to ensure that the illegal occupation of the west bank and Gaza strip by Israel was withdrawn.
That would invite further terrorist
> attacks surely if they suceed in influencing US foreign
> policy. I'm not sure I see a solution at all if this
> military option fails, but I take your point about that
> military option. Basically I don't know what will work.
Nobody does. We clearly need the threat and the use of military force but it should only be an option if diplomatic and peaceful means fail. Even so the Taliban are most likely going to refuse the efforts of the Pakistani delegation. Airstrikes will achieve little (what is there left to bomb?) and a land war would be a long drawn out disaster. The deployment of special forces troops appears to be another option but if the Taliban don't hand bin Laden over he will likely be hidden in the mountains and protected by some of his fiercest fighters so where do you drop your units and how do you get them all back out?
Cheers,
Duncan</HTML>
