Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the U.S. commander for operations in Afghanistan, U.S. Army General Tommy Franks, pronounced themselves satisfied with the way coalition operations have proceeded to date and sketched their vision of the end result of the campaign at a November 8 Pentagon briefing.
Franks, who is commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, told journalists, "we like the progress we have had up to this point." By way of explanation for those who criticize the current effort for not providing visible results fast enough, Franks added, "frequently we will undertake military operations at the same time we build capacity."
Rumsfeld further elaborated the point. "[B]ecause they don't have armies and navies and air forces, and because we're not really arrayed the way one is in a traditional, conventional conflict, what you're going to see ... ultimately, is the effect of all the pressure that's being put on, through law enforcement, through intelligence gathering, through financial freezing of accounts, as well as the air war and the work that's being done on the ground.
"And what will happen is life will become so difficult for the al Qaeda and the Taliban, that people would decide they'd prefer not to have them in their country at some point," Rumsfeld explained.
Rumsfeld began the briefing by stating that over the past 23 years more than 1.5 million Afghans have died in wars, with millions more living as refugees or internally displaced persons. He acknowledged coming hardships to be faced, and stressed the role of the ruling Taliban in preventing the provision of humanitarian relief.
"That's why in my view the greatest humanitarian aid that could be rendered to the Afghan people is to root out the terrorists, the terrorist networks, the al Qaeda, and the Taliban, who support them -- who invited them in and have been harboring them while they've done their terrorist attacks around the world. Prolonging the war would only further oppress the Afghan people and strengthen the oppressors," said Rumsfeld.
Franks confirmed that ground combat operations by the Northern Alliance forces against the Taliban -- he called it a big fight -- are occurring near the town of Mazar-e-Sharif, but he declined to pronounce an outcome to the battle. He also noted that securing the town would be useful in order to "provide a land bridge ... up to Uzbekistan, which provides us, among other things, a humanitarian pathway for us to move supplies out of Central Asia and down into Afghanistan."
Franks reiterated that the use of ground forces -- U.S. or coalition members -- has not been ruled out. He refused to speculate on the size and extent of Taliban casualties or remaining troop strength. (ends)
Click here for transcript of Nov .8 news briefing by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Tommy Franks, commander in chief, U.S. Central Command, on the Pentagon website.
-ends-
Defense Department Report, November 8: Afghanistan Operations
