2002-01-14 (Monday) - 8:51 p.m.

"AMERICAN military chiefs have made a subtle change in Washington’s war aims to help to mask their continued failure to capture Osama bin Laden and his most senior lieutenants.

"The quest for the al-Qaeda leader has been carefully downgraded in the past ten days. Instead of demanding his head, the US high command now says the primary goal of the war in Afghanistan is to disrupt bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network so that it cannot function.

"The significant change has been forced on the Pentagon because of repeated embarrassments over its inability to pinpoint bin Laden or Mullah Muhammad Omar, the spiritual leader of the Taleban.

"The latest disappointment unfolded last week when American special forces discovered that Mullah Omar was not to be found in the mountains around Baghran in northern Helmand, as they had expected. It was the second time he had slipped the net after escaping from Kandahar hours before it fell in December," writes Ronald Watson in today's edition of The Times (London).

email me if you care to,
micah
 
 

previous - next