Gen. Franks: Taking Afghan city a key
to delivering aid, toppling Taliban
By Sandra Jontz, Washington
bureau
ARLINGTON, Va. — Taking the Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif not only gets U.S.
forces and supporters closer to toppling the Taliban regime, it also opens
desperately-needed routes for humanitarian aid to the country’s starving people, said
the conflict’s top general.
"Yes, we are interested in Mazar-e Sharif," said Gen. Tommy Franks, commander
in chief of U.S. Central Command. "We’re interested in it because it would
provide a land bridge … up to Uzbekistan and providing us, among other things, a
humanitarian pathway for us to move supplies out of Central Asia and down to
Afghanistan."
The "great gunfight" going on outside the northern city between the Afghan
opposition forces fighting the Taliban, including imbedded U.S. special operations forces,
would also give the United States control of a paved airfield within the country to ease
access.
However, if the United States plans to win the war against terrorists and those who
harbor them by "knowing thy enemy," the United States is not ready.
"Let me give you a direct answer," Franks said when a reporter asked about
U.S. knowledge of the Taliban force strength.
"The direct answer I’m going to give you is we do not know. … One of the
reasons we have been introducing our special forces — one reason we have been
conducting reconnaissance and surveillance — is to provide more perfect knowledge
with respect to both our own capabilities as well as the enemy’s position and
capability.
"What I can tell you, though, is however many Taliban troops were in this at the
beginning, that same number are not in there today," Franks said.
Progress in military terms might not be what the average American views as progress,
said both Franks and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"I have described this as an effort that will, in fact, take as long as it
takes," Franks said. "I’ve described it as an effort that will be
unconventional rather than linear. This will not, day-by-day, be all about the
establishment or movement of troops along a line of contact."
Franks would not speculate on the possible increase of ground troops in Afghanistan,
whether the forces are supplied by the United States or other nations which have committed
troops
Those nations include Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France and Spain.
"As we have said on several occasions, we will not take off the table the
possibility of the use of ground forces, not ours, and we won’t take off the table
the potential use of coalition forces."
It bears repeating, Rumsfeld said, that the United States did not choose the timing for
the conflict.
Instead, it was a course set by the al-Qaida terrorist network when hijackers attacked
on U.S. soil Sept. 11.
In this attack on the Taliban regime and the terrorists, the United States is
exercising its right for self-defense.
He again told reporters the United States has no plans to stop the war during the
upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in roughly a week, and if the military
did plan a stoppage, he wouldn’t be broadcasting those plans.
The conflict isn’t about self-defense alone, Rumsfeld said.
It’s also about helping the impoverished people of Afghanistan who have suffered
under the oppressive rule of the Taliban.
"That’s why, in my view, the greatest humanitarian aid that can be rendered
to the Afghan people is to root out the terrorists networks of al-Qaida and the Taliban
for supporting them," Rumsfeld said.
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