10-23-01



U.S WAR ALLY RETREATS AGAIN!



According to General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it’s important to take the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif which is in northern Afghanistan and is key to taking Kabul, the Capitol. For the second defeat in two weeks the U.S. ally, the Northern Alliance, “has been pushed back more that four miles from the city as they waited for ammunition and medical supplies” according to the LA TIMES of Oct.23,2001. This time the U.S.hit the area previously with air strikes for days attempting to soften up the Taliban forces all to no avail.

“The Alliance said last week that it was on the verge of taking Mazar-e-Sharif and had reached the outskirts of the city. But the Taliban brought in reinforcements and forced the opposition fighters to withdraw into the hills to the south. Since then, the better armed Taliban troops have caused the Northern Alliance to pull back even further in to the hills.”

According to the WALL STREET JOURNAL of Oct.23,2001 “-with the military campaign moving into a riskier phase of ground attacks by U.S.commandos, the Pentagon also may be under pressure to produce some dramatic victory, short of capturing or killing bin Laden. Even with U.S. air support, though, the Northern Alliance may find it hard to take the city. The Taliban is believed to have 5-10,000 of its own troops and 4,000 Arab volunteers. The Alliance has 3,000 troops near Kabul.

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld conceded, U.S. efforts to take out Taliban forces with air strikes has met with ‘uneven success.’ Destroying Taliban infantry soldiers who are expert at fading into Afghanistan’s mountains and villages.