Article: Afghanistan Not Yet A Target

Explosions that erupted around Kabul Sep. 11 are not the result of U.S. action, despite speculation that Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, who shelters in Afghanistan, was behind today's terrorist strikes in the United States. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said during a press conference that there is "no way" the United States was behind the violence.

Rather, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia launched a massive attack against opposition Northern Alliance forces north of the city. The attack follows allegations that Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Masood died of injuries he received in an assassination attempt Sep. 9. Taliban and Northern Alliance forces have been winding up the summer fighting season over the past few weeks with extensive clashes north of Kabul and in the northern province of Takhar.

Rather, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia launched a massive attack against opposition Northern Alliance forces north of the city. The attack follows allegations that Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Masood died of injuries he received in an assassination attempt Sep. 9. Taliban and Northern Alliance forces have been winding up the summer fighting season over the past few weeks with extensive clashes north of Kabul and in the northern province of Takhar.

Washington has neither had time to identify those responsible for the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks nor to prepare a retaliatory strike. Moreover, even if it were already determined that bin Laden and his Taliban hosts were behind the attacks, the United States does not have assets close enough to Kabul to launch such an attack at this time. The nearest carrier battle group, led by the USS Enterprise (CVN 65), is in the Persian Gulf.

Today's attacks could substantially alter the course of the war in Afghanistan, however. The Taliban militia, predominately Pushtun and backed by Pakistan, control 90 percent to 95 percent of the country but have been unable to rout the Northern Alliance from its remaining pockets of resistance. The Northern Alliance is a loose coalition of mostly ethnically defined armies, backed individually or collectively by Russia, Iran, India, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

While the Taliban have been unable to consolidate their control over Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance has retreated to an isolated and desolate corner of the country. Foreign sponsors have supplied enough material to ensure their survival, but little more. The Northern Alliance is in no position to launch a counteroffensive against the Taliban, as recent thwarted attacks in Takhar have demonstrated.

The U.S. government is eager to wreak vengeance on whomever was behind today's attacks, and that retaliation will no doubt be of comparable magnitude. Washington has previously demonstrated its willingness to target Afghanistan in retaliation for previous alleged actions of bin Laden, including the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.

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