U.S. forces within striking distance of Afghanistan

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 24. Amid reports that special U.S. and British forces are already on the ground in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Bush administration is going no further than saying that its forces are ``within'' striking distance of the targets in the Taliban-controlled country.

The U.S. is also making it known that Afghanistan could be only its first target in the strikes against terrorism. Amid growing pressure from within the administration to strike Iraq also, senior law-makers here have taken the position that Afghanistan should be only the first priority.

In continuing to keep the pressure on the Taliban, senior administration officials said on Sunday that it was up to the fundamentalist group to end the ``second foreign occupation'' of its country; and several Cabinet members have scoffed at the suggestion that the Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, is ``missing'' from Afghanistan. (The Taliban said on Sunday that it could not ``trace'' Osama to deliver an edict asking him to leave Afghanistan voluntarily).

`They know where he is'

``The Taliban is going to have to begin to understand that it has a very tough choice to make,'' the U.S. President, Mr. George Bush's National Security Adviser, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, has said. The administration is not prepared to accept the Taliban's ``softened stance'' that it is willing to rid the country of Osama but the problem is it cannot ``find'' him to serve a notice. ``They (Taliban) know where he is,'' the Defence Secretary, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld, has said.

The U.S. is convinced that Osama and his Al Qaeda were behind the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, which left nearly 7000 people dead or presumed dead. And it is willing to present evidence linking Osama and his organisation to the attacks.

``... In the near future, we will be able to put out a paper, a document, that will describe quite clearly the evidence that we have linking him to this attack,'' the U.S. Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, has said.

Mr. Bush returned from Camp David on Sunday, after attending a ceremony that put the American flag back at full-mast. (It was flying at half-mast since September 11).

Politically, the Republican President is seeing approval ratings not seen for the last sixty years - 90 per cent of the Americans approve of the manner in which he is handling the crisis.

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