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Posted on 12/06/2001 4:02:02 PM PST by Pokey78

THE decision by the Taliban to surrender Kandahar, its last stronghold, is a tremendous vindication of American political will and military strength.

Within three months of the suicide hijackings on September 11, the United States has brought a regime on the other side of the world to its knees. George Bush has shown that he can strike against the sponsors of terrorism at will.

As for the terrorists themselves, the fate of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qa'eda network, now shorn of their Taliban protection, is telling testimony to the cost of attacking the one remaining superpower.

As during the Gulf war in 1991 and the Nato campaign over Serbia in 1999, the main instrument of retribution has been the United States Air Force.

During the past decade, it has proved that it can break the enemy with minimal casualties.

The renewed demonstration of its might in Afghanistan should make the likes of Saddam Hussein quake. Once mopping-up operations have been concluded there, Iraq is likely to be the next target in the war on global terrorism.

Yet the air force could not have achieved its successes without the enemy being aware that Washington and its allies had committed, or were prepared to commit, ground troops as well.

In the Gulf war, a huge Arab and Western army was assembled. In Kosovo, such a deployment was not necessary, but its prospect helped break Slobodan Milosevic. America and Britain have had special forces on the ground in Afghanistan from the beginning, and, more recently, conventional troops.

The Taliban will have known that, had the West's Pathan allies been unable to take Kandahar, an airborne division could have been flown from across the Atlantic to do so.

The surrender of Kandahar does not mean that the Afghan campaign is over, as Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said in Washington yesterday.

Taliban forces are still at large and bin Laden and his praetorian guard of Arabs, Pakistanis and Chechens have yet to be "smoked out", to use President Bush's phrase.

But the collapse of resistance in the Taliban's heartland will enable Washington and its Afghan partners to focus their military attention on the mountains in the eastern part of the country where the hard core of al-Qa'eda is thought to be hiding.

Given the speed of military advance since the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif nearly a month ago, the denouement could come at any time. How wildly pessimistic those predictions of a campaign lasting years now seem!

Much of Mr Rumsfeld's press conference yesterday was taken up with what should be done with the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, and his senior colleagues.

The defence secretary declined to be specific but ruled out a solution which would allow Mullah Omar to live in "dignity".

On talks for the surrender of Kandahar between the Taliban and its Pathan opponents under Hamid Karzai, chairman-designate of the interim government, Mr Rumsfeld said: "I do not think there will be a negotiated end to the situation that will be unacceptable to the United States."

Washington is evidently allowing its Pathan allies leeway in dealing with the Taliban surrender as a means of strengthening Mr Karzai's position before he takes over as national leader in Kabul this month.

That may mean an amnesty for the Taliban rank and file in the hope that they can be brought to co-operate with a successor regime in which the Pathans will be under-represented.

But such leniency should not be extended to the leadership if President Bush means what he says about the sponsors of terrorism. Mr Rumsfeld's remarks suggest that Washington will insist that its freedom of movement be severely curtailed.

With the Taliban toppled, there remains the prime task of crushing al-Qa'eda. Here there should be no room for compromise. If not killed in the taking of their mountain fastnesses, its members must be prevented from plying their murderous trade elsewhere.

Despite the rapidity of the initial phase of the war on terrorism, many obstacles lie ahead in other parts of the world. It is essential that Afghanistan sends an exemplary message to terrorists and their sponsors who fancy that nothing fundamental has changed since September 11.

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