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10 year war

> SECRET PLANS FOR 10-YEAR WAR
> Generals rule out 'D-Day invasion'
>
> By Michael Evans, Defence Editor
>
> [The Times, UK, 20 Sept 2001]:
> AMERICA and Britain are producing secret plans
> to launch a ten-year “war on terrorism” —
> Operation Noble Eagle — involving a completely
> new military and diplomatic strategy to
> eliminate terrorist networks and cells around
> the world.
>
> Despite the mass build-up of American forces in
> the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, there will be no
> “D-Day invasion” of Afghanistan and no repeat
> of the US-led Operation Desert Storm against
> Iraq in 1991, defence sources say.
>
> The notion that a US-led multinational
> coalition would attack Afghanistan from all
> sides for harbouring Osama bin Laden, the
> wealthy Saudi dissident leader and prime
> suspect for the terrorist outrages in New York
> and Washington, has been rejected in Washington
> and London. The sources also say that the
> planned campaign is not being focused on just
> “bringing bin Laden to justice”.
>
> The build-up of firepower by the Americans in
> the region, notably
> the two aircraft carrier battle groups that are
> to be joined by a third carrier, USS Theodore
> Roosevelt, is seen as a major display of
> available military capability. While it is
> important for these assets to be in the right
> place in case of a political decision to launch
> a strike, there are no plans for a “short-term
> fix”.
>
> The dramatically different anti-terrorism
> campaign is being planned to meet what is now
> regarded as the most dangerous threat to global
> security, known as asymmetric warfare. “We’re
> expecting it to last from five to ten years,”
> one source said.
>
> New ideas are needed to counter small groups
> armed with the minimum of weaponry, whether
> conventional or non-conventional. Such groups
> have the capability to attack a nation as
> powerful as the United States, which is
> equipped with the full range of modern weapons
> and professional Armed Forces.
>
> Old doctrines for fighting wars, based on
> lining up tanks and artillery and layers of
> troops, are being thrown out and replaced by a
> more subtle and wide-ranging doctrine which
> seeks to defeat the enemy at its own game. “The
> aim is not to go for the enemy’s strengths, but
> its weaknesses,” one source said.
>
> American and British planners are working on
> the basis that military strikes will take place
> only as part of a broader global
> counter-terrorist operation, embracing every
> other type of international action —
> diplomatic, economic and political.
>
> Most of the focus of the ten-year campaign
> plan, the sources say, is on using military
> action as a potent back-up to all the other
> strands of Operation Noble Eagle.
>
> However, President Bush, conscious of the
> demand for “revenge” from the American public,
> might sanction shorter-term military operation
> by special forces, or airstrikes, but only if
> there is sufficient intelligence to guarantee a
> sucessful outcome. “There’s no point in firing
> a lot of missiles at bin Laden if they miss
> their target, or launching Tomahawks at bin
> Laden training camps if they are empty,” one
> source said.
>
> Donald Rumsfeld, the American Defence
> Secretary, also gave the strongest hint
> yesterday of what Operation Noble Eagle is all
> about. “I think what you will see evolve over
> the next six, eight, ten, 12 months, probably
> over a period of years, is a coalition to help
> battle terrorists,” he told CNN.
>
> He added: “This is a very new type of conflict
> or battle or campaign or war or effort, for the
> United States. We’re moving in a measured
> manner. As we gather information, we’re
> preparing appropriate courses of action, and
> they run across the political and economic and
> financial, military, intelligence spectrum.”
>
> British officials said the whole focus of the
> long-term American approach was being driven by
> Richard Cheney, the American Vice-President,
> and General Colin Powell, the Secretary of
> State. The combination of the two highly
> experienced men was guaranteeing a
> well-coordinated strategy. “Everyone now knows
> it’s going to be a long haul, not a spectacular
> single strike,” one official said.
>
> The war on terrorism could be likened, they
> said, to the war on drugs or poverty, and the
> best way to undermine and eventually dismantle
> the terrorist structures around the world was
> to use the method of “hearts and minds” —
> encouraging foreign governments and people to
> join in the “war” so that terrorists would be
> isolated and identified.
>
> Some of the most dramatic achievements, the
> sources say, might come, not from military
> action, but from political pressure on foreign
> governments to turn their backs on terrorism
> and to hand over the organisers of terrorist
> networks.
>
> They point to the campaign against Yugoslavia
> in 1999. Although the airstrikes fitted more
> closely to the “old doctrine concept” of using
> massed firepower to target the enemy, which
> brought criticism from many parts of the world,
> Nato was also seen to be working as a
> humanitarian agency with its operation in
> Albania helping to build shelters for the
> thousands of refugees pouring out of Kosovo.
>
> The eventual outcome, the political downfall of
> Slobodan Milosevic and the decision by the new
> Government to hand him over to the war crimes
> tribunal in The Hague, is seen as a classic
> example of how military action can serve two
> purposes, defeating the enemy and effecting
> political change.
>
> In the Gulf War, the American-led coalition
> achieved one objective, driving the Iraqis out
> of Kuwait, but not the other, the overthrow of
> President Saddam Hussein by his own people.
>
> Already, the sources say, just over a week
> after the terrorist attacks in America, there
> have been positive developments: the Israeli
> and Palestinian leaders have agreed a new
> ceasefire and 1,000 clerics have been forced to
> gather in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, to
> discuss the fate of bin Laden.
>
> Yesterday it was also announced that President
> Putin is to visit Nato headquarters in Brussels
> on October 3 and will meet Lord Robertson of
> Port Ellen, the Secretary- General, another
> positive sign that the Russian leader supports
> the campaign against terrorism.
>
> Russia and Nato put out a joint statement last
> week condemning the terrorist attacks and
> vowing that they would not go unpunished.
>
> Other coalitions against terrorism are also
> being rapidly formed and several countries,
> notably Pakistan yesterday, have offered bases
> for American military action.
>
> However, sources in Washington say there are no
> plans to deploy huge numbers of US troops to
> Pakistan, which would only inflame Islamic
> fundamentalists opposed to the decision by
> President Musharraf to grant US access to two
> air bases in the country.
>
>
>
>-





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