[second time in a decade we take care of Saudi Arabia's problems eh?........]
US troops ready for swift pullout Allies fear Bush will launch other offensives Simon Tisdall in Washington Thursday November 29, 2001 The Guardian The Bush administration underlined its intention yesterday to make a swift military exit from Afghanistan once its objectives of destroying Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network and toppling the remnants of the Taliban regime have been achieved. The word was given as US marines consolidated their bridgehead near the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar and the Pentagon tried to assess the impact of Tuesday night's dramatic air strikes on a compound supposedly occupied by the Taliban leadership . Despite the emphasis being placed by Britain and other European coalition partners on long-term stabilisation, humanitarian, and nation-building tasks, US attention is shifting beyond Afghanistan and towards extending the "war against terrorism" to Iraq and other possible targets, such as Somalia. Speaking unattributably, a senior state department official said the administration, which has managed the international coalition's military campaign in Afghanistan almost single-handedly, would consider that it has done enough if and when the Tal iban and al-Qaida are finally crushed. "There's no need at that point for the coalition still to be present," the official said. Although the US intended to join other countries in the political and physical rehabilitation of Afghanistan, "I would not imagine that the United States would be a participant in that," the official added. The comments will alarm European allies on two counts. One is the fear that international reconstruction and humanitarian relief efforts will be hampered by the continuing lawlessness which has claimed the lives of several foreign journalists in recent days. The other is that a swift US military pullout will hasten the prospect of US offensive action elsewhere, including Iraq, where US and British warplanes were again in action this week. No assessment of the impact of Tuesday night's US air strikes on the Taliban compound south of Kandahar was forthcoming yesterday. Mr Rumsfeld, visiting the US central command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, earlier on Tuesday, had forecast that there would be important results from the attacks on a "leadership area". "Whoever was there is going to wish they weren't," he said But US was unable to say what if anything the raids had achieved, while in Islamabad a Taliban spokesman said the regime's leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, was alive and well.
