Posted on 05/19/2002 11:11:10 AM PDT by swarthyguy
WASHINGTON D.C., May 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – In another illustration of U.S. President George W. Bush’s determination to follow through on promises of taking action against what he calls the “axis of evil”, American troops have started building a military base near the Afghan border with Iran as Bush attempts to seal German support for an impending attack on Iraq.
An Afghan official was quoted on Iranian state radio Sunday saying U.S. forces are setting up a military base in Afghanistan close to Iran's eastern border.
The military base is being set up in a region near Islam-Qaleh in Herat province, in Afghanistan, close to its border with Iran's northeastern Khorasan province, the Afghan official said on condition of anonymity.
"Agreement was reached to build this military base during the recent visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Herat," the source added.
Rumsfeld made a four-day visit to Central Asia, including Afghanistan and a stop in Herat, in April. But there was no official confirmation of the base report.
The commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards warned on May 11 that U.S. threats against the country were "serious" and that the people should prepare to defend themselves.
The United States has implanted itself in Central Asia, considered host to vast energy reserves, since the September 11 attacks against the U.S. by the Al-Qaeda network, then based in Afghanistan.
U.S.-led forces toppled Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime, which backed Al-Qaeda, in December. At the time, Tehran and Washington appeared to be working in concert to defeat the Taliban, but the new dynamic soon crumbled.
Tehran and Washington cut diplomatic ties following the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.
In January, U.S. President George W. Bush branded Iran, Iraq and North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" and named them as potential targets in the U.S. "war on terror".
In related news, Bush will set out for Germany Wednesday in an attempt to win European support for the next phase in his “war on terror” which would see Iraq as the latest target.
Reports relayed that his attempts may be marred by massive anti-American protests.
Bush has so far made speeches directed at the American public but in Berlin he "must convince Europeans about his Iraqi policy... and the war against terrorism," Karsten Voigt, coordinator at the foreign ministry for German-U.S. relations, said earlier this month.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder warned in Sunday's Welt am Sonntag newspaper that while the United States is the one superpower in the world, it still "needs friends and allies. No one can make politics alone."
Bush expects Germany to continue to "show solidarity in the war against terrorism" and Germany will do so, Schroeder said.
But, European states have warned Bush against “hasty actions” aimed at the Saddam Hussein regime.
Bush arrives Wednesday evening for a one-day visit that is threatened by anti-war and anti-globalization demonstrations. He will then go on to Russia, France and Italy.
Pacifists and some politicians have said they will demonstrate in Berlin but Schroeder has warned of a severe crackdown on any violent protests.
"Anyone who mixes the freedom to protest with violence will run against the full force of the police," he told Welt am Sonntag.
Bush faces the wrath of globally minded protestors who are against U.S. anti-terrorist military actions as well as the growth of world capitalism.
Voigt said Bush would "seek to make a speech that addresses Europeans without alienating Americans," including discussing the enlargement of NATO.
Voigt said a problem in perception was that Americans feel they are at war against terrorism in the wake of the September 11 attacks while Europeans do not.
"The American president says we are making war against terrorism. War in Europe means war on our own soil ... while in America it is war against drugs, war against hate, war against criminality, against whatever is possible," Voigt said.
"Americans say what good and evil is, that is part of their strength, but in Europe this is seen to a large extent not as strength but as arrogance," Voigt said.
Voigt said Germans feel the West must first use "all possibilities with the United Nations," namely getting Iraq to agree to U.N. inspections of its weapons capacities.
If that fails, Germany could join the United States in a military action.
But this will only happen if the United States proceeds with a strategy that includes an idea of what sort of government Iraq would have once Saddam Hussein was defeated and overthrown, Voigt said.
He said the United States would get support from Berlin when they can answer the question: "How do you win the peace?"
"But when the only answer is military and there is not the notion of nation building, then they will get a different reaction," Voigt said.
Schroeder has said Germany would not join in any military action against Iraq unless there was a U.N. mandate for such an intervention.
An Afghan official was quoted on Iranian state radio Sunday saying U.S. forces are setting up a military base in Afghanistan close to Iran's eastern border.How will a base on Iran's Afghani border help us topple Saddam?
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