{"id":44,"date":"2001-09-23T22:22:40","date_gmt":"2001-09-23T22:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brucefinley.com\/inside-the-war-on-terrorism\/we-are-ready-to-fight\/"},"modified":"2008-07-17T17:46:53","modified_gmt":"2008-07-17T17:46:53","slug":"we-are-ready-to-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/counter-terrorism\/we-are-ready-to-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"“We are ready to fight’"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Defiance shows difficulty of America’s mission<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>PESHAWAR, Pakistan<\/em> – The twisting narrow street reeks of<br \/>\nsewage. A woman hidden beneath a black veil trudges through a<br \/>\nmuddy backstreet bazaar in an Afghan neighborhood. An elderly man<br \/>\nwearing a bandolier of bullets across his chest stands with his<br \/>\nrifle.<\/p>\n<p>And 42-year-old Mohammad Ishaq, tending to bags of rice and<br \/>\nbeans in his general store, states the neighborhood position.<\/p>\n<p>“We are ready to fight. We don’t want to fight. But if<br \/>\nsomebody attacks Afghanistan, we are ready.”<\/p>\n<p>U.S. military forces are mobilizing.<\/p>\n<p>Fundamentalist forces along the Afghan border seem undaunted.<\/p>\n<p>This past week, thousands rallied in the streets of Peshawar<br \/>\n(pesh-AH-war) warning that a U.S. attack on Afghanistan, where<br \/>\nOsama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda group are based and have been<br \/>\nwelcomed, would amount to terrorism against Muslims.<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen how many more across the Islamic world<br \/>\nshare their sentiments in the face of a U.S.-led retaliation<br \/>\ncampaign.<\/p>\n<p>“America thinks, “I am the only one in the world, nobody<br \/>\nelse, a superpower,'” a mullah told more than 1,000 followers who<br \/>\nclosed down a market in Peshawar on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Henchmen raised sabers around the religious leader as he told<br \/>\nfollowers how, after the attacks on Washington and New York City<br \/>\non Sept. 11, “the president … fled his house.”<\/p>\n<p>After the hijackings, the destruction of the World Trade<br \/>\nCenter towers and the maiming of the Pentagon, President Bush has<br \/>\ntried to enlist allies around the world to root out international<br \/>\nterrorism.<\/p>\n<p>America’s most wanted suspect right now is bin Laden. The<br \/>\npresident has said governments that harbor terrorists will be held<br \/>\naccountable.<\/p>\n<p>The military ruler of Pakistan, an overwhelmingly Muslim<br \/>\nnation of 141 million, is supporting Bush.<\/p>\n<p>But reaction within Pakistan to Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s<br \/>\nposition shows how difficult and potentially divisive the United<br \/>\nStates’ declared course may be.<\/p>\n<p>There have been dozens of rallies nationwide, with<br \/>\nfundamentalists burning effigies of Bush and chanting “God is<br \/>\ngreat!” Musharraf sent soldiers to patrol Peshawar with machine<br \/>\nguns mounted on pickup trucks. In Karachi, two deaths were<br \/>\nreported as riot police suppressed demonstrations.<\/p>\n<p>“We think America is doing wrong,” says Mohammed Qisam, owner<br \/>\nof a cloth shop in a marketplace where other merchants, displaying<br \/>\nvegetables and unrefrigerated meat, squat in the mud. “Osama is<br \/>\nnothing. He doesn’t have the power to attack America.”<\/p>\n<p>Other men gather around him nodding, clamoring with demands<br \/>\nthat U.S. officials produce proof of bin Laden’s guilt before<br \/>\npreparing military attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, too, has asked for such proof.<br \/>\nBush has declared there will be no negotiation on his demand for<br \/>\nthe Afghanistan government to surrender bin Laden. Still,<br \/>\nadministration officials said they are preparing a report that<br \/>\nwill link bin Laden to the New York and Washington attacks and<br \/>\nprevious terrorist mayhem.<\/p>\n<p>As U.S. combat forces ready for the war on terrorism that<br \/>\nBush has declared, Muslims in this part of the world wrestle with<br \/>\ndoubts and a starkly different view of history.<\/p>\n<p>Afghan people have moved back and forth for centuries across<br \/>\nthe border near Peshawar. United Nations officials estimated that<br \/>\nthousands entered Pakistan last week despite Pakistani efforts to<br \/>\nseal the border.<\/p>\n<p>Surrounded by mountainous desert, Peshawar is a borderland<br \/>\ncity where men and women line up, separated by a curtain, to send<br \/>\nmessages for about $3 a minute at an Internet service. Just a<br \/>\nthree-hour bus ride from Osama bin Laden’s terror training camps<br \/>\nnear Jalalabad, it also is a hotbed of dissent to the central<br \/>\ngovernment’s policy. “We don’t want any war,” said Abdul Jalil,<br \/>\nthe Taliban government representative, standing outside his<br \/>\nconsular office. “The Taliban is not against people who live in<br \/>\nAmerica. Taliban is nice people.”<\/p>\n<p>He wouldn’t discuss bin Laden. But he agreed to explain the<br \/>\nTaliban view of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Followers are aiming at a pure “Islamic life” that rejects<br \/>\nmuch of modern life, Jalil said.<\/p>\n<p>Modern technology such as cellphones and the Internet are<br \/>\naccepted as a “necessity,” he said. But Western technology also<br \/>\nbrings problems. Television images of violence and nudity “are<br \/>\ntotally against our religion.”<\/p>\n<p>None of this means that Taliban followers hate Americans,<br \/>\nJalil said.<\/p>\n<p>But U.S. policies often oppress Muslims, he said, and the<br \/>\nKoran calls for a jihad struggle against those who oppress<br \/>\nMuslims.<\/p>\n<p>“We think America must change its policy toward Palestine and<br \/>\ntoward Iraq,” he said. “Don’t be cruel to Muslim people.”<\/p>\n<p>Inside his Taliban office, telephones ring from people<br \/>\nwanting to escape Afghanistan. Jalil said he’d just returned to<br \/>\nPakistan from Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, where poverty is<br \/>\nintense. The government opened up schools as food centers where<br \/>\n“thousands” of children swarm. Yet everyone is ready to fight, he<br \/>\nsaid.<\/p>\n<p>“All the people there are thinking, if there is an attack, we<br \/>\nmust respond,” he said. “We are ready. We will respond to any<br \/>\nattack.”<\/p>\n<p>Fundamentalist fighters enjoy folk hero status. A lack of<br \/>\ngovernment investment in education means most children attend only<br \/>\nreligious schools that spread ideology. It is a movement the<br \/>\nUnited States helped create.<\/p>\n<p>In the 1980s, U.S. officials working with Pakistani<br \/>\nintelligence officers armed Afghan “freedom fighters” to oppose<br \/>\nSoviet occupation of Afghanistan. Bin Laden helped finance the<br \/>\nresistance and reportedly participated in some of the fighting.<\/p>\n<p>Training camps were established, many in Pakistan. After the<br \/>\ncollapse of the Soviet Union, more freedom fighters trained in the<br \/>\ncamps for another regional conflict: the battle between Pakistan<br \/>\nand India for turf in Kashmir.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, fundamentalist Taliban fighters took over most of<br \/>\nAfghanistan and have sheltered bin Laden, whose extremist views<br \/>\ninclude declaring a holy war to drive U.S. troops from the Arabian<br \/>\npeninsula. In one statement, he called on Muslims to kill<br \/>\nAmericans anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n<p>The degree to which that view is widespread will help<br \/>\ndetermine the fate of the president’s war on terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>Islamic fundamentalists have clashed with – and, U.S.<br \/>\nofficials say, have unleashed terror on – more centrist Muslims.<br \/>\nBin Laden himself fled Saudi Arabia, where he was born and where<br \/>\nhis family’s lucrative construction business was based.<\/p>\n<p>Islamic leaders in the United States and elsewhere have<br \/>\ncondemned the terrorist attacks. The president and other world<br \/>\nleaders have urged people to distinguish between most of the<br \/>\nIslamic world and what they define as the violent, extremist<br \/>\nfringe. On Saturday, the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic<br \/>\nrelations with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers for refusing to<br \/>\nsurrender bin Laden, the state news agency reported.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves just two countries that recognize the Taliban as<br \/>\nAfghanistan’s government – Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis<br \/>\nthree years ago downgraded their diplomatic ties with the Taliban,<br \/>\nand Pakistan now has sided with Bush and said the leaders in Kabul<br \/>\nshould give up bin Laden.<\/p>\n<p>Yet in Pakistan, a common view, not just among hard-core<br \/>\nfundamentalists but also mainstream businessmen, is that bin Laden<br \/>\nmay be wrongly accused.<\/p>\n<p>“Whoever did the attacks, they wanted to make a conflict<br \/>\nbetween America and Muslim people,” said shoe store manager Zashir<br \/>\nShah, 21, one of a group of Pakistani businessmen who gathered to<br \/>\ntalk things over.<\/p>\n<p>Lead suspect in this conspiracy theory: Israel. The men in<br \/>\nthe shoe shop emphasized that they condemned the attacks, which<br \/>\nthey watched repeatedly on television like the rest of the world.<\/p>\n<p>But rather than fight terrorism by trying to obliterate<br \/>\nglobal terrorist networks, the businessmen said, a more effective<br \/>\nstrategy for the United States would be to re-evaluate policies<br \/>\nthat put Americans at odds with much of the Islamic world.<\/p>\n<p>“Toward Iraq, the policy is not good,” Shah said. “Palestine?<br \/>\nNot good. And the United States has troops in Saudi Arabia. In<br \/>\nAmerica, there is democracy. The people of America must convey to<br \/>\ntheir leaders that these policies must be changed.”<\/p>\n<p>Experts said bin Laden’s plan is to provoke U.S. aggression<br \/>\nagainst some Muslims to alienate many Muslims.<\/p>\n<p>The prospect of a U.S. attack and the Pakistan government’s<br \/>\npledge of support prompted Taliban officials to threaten an attack<br \/>\non Pakistan. Taliban forces reportedly are massed near the<br \/>\nmountainous desert border. The Pakistani military is on high<br \/>\nalert, with F-16s purchased from the United States whooshing<br \/>\noverhead from Peshawar several times a day.<\/p>\n<p>“If America attacks Afghanistan,” said snuff shop owner<br \/>\nRehmat Gul, 50, “Peshawar will be in danger.” As for the weapons<br \/>\nthat the U.S. gave the Afghans to fight against the Russians, he<br \/>\nsaid, “now they will use them against us.”<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan’s Musharraf has estimated that 15 percent of<br \/>\nPakistan’s people oppose his decision to help the United States.<br \/>\nHe was trying to win over critics Saturday, meeting with student<br \/>\nprotest leaders. But even some who support him hold the view that<br \/>\nthe U.S. must rely on more than military action to prevent suicide<br \/>\nattacks.<\/p>\n<p>The underlying cause of the attacks “is the biased U.S.<br \/>\npolicy, tilted against Muslims,” said Javaid Iqbal, manager of the<br \/>\nUnited Nations office coordinating aid programs for Afghanistan.<br \/>\nHis advice to U.S. officials: “Research before you strike.”<\/p>\n<p>And to maintain support among Muslim governments, he said,<br \/>\nAmericans should negotiate “on the basis that you value their<br \/>\nideas, not that you will impose your will and drive them around<br \/>\nlike sheep and cattle.”<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pentagon team to visit Pakistan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A Pentagon team will arrive in Peshawar<br \/>\nthis week for discussions with government officials about specific<br \/>\nsupport it needs to continue the hunt for Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n<p>The group, drawn from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other<br \/>\nPentagon offices, will meet with Pakistani military counterparts,<br \/>\na senior Bush administration official said Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan has agreed to close its border with Afghanistan and<br \/>\nto permit U.S. military overflights in the event of an American<br \/>\nattack.<\/p>\n<p>But the details of what appears to be a pending operation<br \/>\nneed to be worked out.<\/p>\n<p>President Pervez Musharraf has backed the U.S. in its drive<br \/>\nagainst bin Laden despite strong anti-U.S. sentiment in Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>Denver Post staff writer Bruce Finley and The Associated Press<br \/>\ncontributed to this report.<\/p>\n<p><strong>At A Glance: Pakistan:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Country: Islamic Republic of Pakistan<\/p>\n<p>Capital: Islamabad Total area: 310,402.97 square<br \/>\nmiles (slightly less than twice the size of California)<\/p>\n<p>Estimated Population (July 2000) 141,553,775<br \/>\nGovernment: Federal Republic<\/p>\n<p>Climate: Mostly hot, dry desert; temperate in northwest;<br \/>\narctic in north Terrain: Flat Indus plain in east,<br \/>\nmountains north and northwest; Balochistan plateau west<\/p>\n<p>Religions: Muslim 97 percent (Sunni 77 percent Shi’a 20<br \/>\npercent) Christian, Hindu and other 3 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Literacy: 37.8 percent; 50 percent male; 24.4 percent<br \/>\nfemale<\/p>\n<p>Life Expectancy: 60 years for men, 62 years for women<\/p>\n<p>Gross Domestic Product per capita: $2,000 (1999 estimate)<\/p>\n<p>Labor Force: Agriculture 44 percent; industry 17 percent;<br \/>\nServices 39 percent<\/p>\n<p>Sources: MapQuest; World Atlas; U.S. Government<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defiance shows difficulty of America’s mission PESHAWAR, Pakistan – The twisting narrow street reeks of sewage. A woman hidden beneath a black veil trudges through a muddy backstreet bazaar in an Afghan neighborhood. An elderly man wearing a bandolier of bullets across his chest stands with his rifle. And 42-year-old Mohammad Ishaq, tending to bags […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-counter-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}