The US and its coalition against terrorism is moving into position near Afghanistan
Mail & Guardian reporters
By air and sea, the United States and Britain were building up their military presence on Thursday in the Gulf and hundreds of thousands of Afghans rushed to their borders to find they had been almost completely sealed off.
Nearly 100 US Air Force planes have been dispatched to bases in the Gulf, the Indian Ocean and the Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as part of the anti-terrorism campaign being mounted by the US, White House officials said.
Britain has sent in bombers to its Indian Ocean island base of Diego Garcia and is building up forces in the area its largest naval deployment since the 1982 Falklands War.
One US military source was quoted saying that, rather than organising a military invasion, US and British planners were working on the basis that military strikes would take place only as part of a wider counter-terrorist campaign involving international diplomatic, economic and political action.
Fighter-bombers are to operate out of Uzbekistan, which, along with Tajikistan, borders Afghanistan, where the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden, is believed to be hiding.
On Wednesday the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt left Norfolk, Virginia, to lead a 14-ship naval task force including assault ships carrying about 2 000 combat Marines capable of conducting special operations.
The fleet set a course for the Mediterranean and “points east”, tight-lipped Pentagon officials revealed, hoping to retain an element of surprise in the military buildup dubbed “Operation Infinite Justice”.
About 15 000 sailors are aboard the carrier, guided missile cruisers, destroyers, frigates, submarines and supply ships setting off on a six-month deployment, a Pentagon official said.
Two other carrier battle groups are already in the Gulf region in a flotilla of 15 000 sailors and 2 100 Marines, said Atlantic Fleet commander Admiral Robert Natter.
Force is a secondary option for President George W Bush, his officials are maintaining, and the deployments are an effort by the president to keep his options open while hoping to intimidate terror-sponsoring states into complying with US demands.
“The US is repositioning some of its forces to support the president’s goal,” national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said. “This is a war of will and mind. It is a war in which information may be the most important asset that we have.”
As the Mail & Guardian went to press, top aides said Bush will not provide elaborate details of the deployment in a speech to a joint session of the US Congress. He will instead call for steely US resolve and “sacrifice” ahead of a global war on terrorism.
US efforts to forge an international coalition are rapidly advancing not only with Nato allies, but also with China, Russia and several Muslim countries promising varying degrees of support.
The coalition won solid, if not specific, support on Wednesday from two crucial Muslim countries Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Arab support is considered crucial for the US-led coalition, and Bush has urged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to back up a condemnation of terrorism “with action”.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in a speech to the nation, indicated Pakistan had washed its hands of the Taliban and was committed to joining the world community in the fight against terrorism. Musharraf said the US had requested the use of Pakistani airspace in the event of an attack against Afghanistan, and Pakistan had offered “full cooperation”.
Tens of thousands of Afghans have fled their homes, anticipating imminent US strikes.
The armed forces of Tajikistan were instructed on Thursday to seal off the border with Afghanistan against a possible influx of refugees after any US military action. About 10 000 refugees have gathered on the Afghan side of the border with Tajikistan.
Anti-American sentiment is on the rise in Pakistan’s southern city of Quetta as its 500 000 inhabitants wait for Washington’s wrath to be unleashed on Afghanistan. The city lies less than 200km from Kandahar, the Afghan city that is home to Bin Laden and top of the likely list of US targets.
Quetta’s airport and Baluchistan’s main port, Gwadar, could be key entry points and that will not go down well with the locals, many of whom share ethnic and cultural bonds with the Afghans.
Iraq warned of global war on Thursday and raised fears of a major air campaign against it as Western intelligence agencies sought to establish a link between Baghdad and last week’s terror attacks.
The US has maintained a large force in the Gulf since leading the Gulf War coalition that ousted Iraq from Kuwait in 1991. Combat planes are stationed in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait and weapons storage and other installations are located elsewhere in the Gulf.
In Kuwait, where the US military keeps squadrons of bombers and fighters at two of the country’s air bases to patrol the skies over Iraq, there is understanding of American desire to respond.
But concerns remain, particularly if the battle against terror begins to look like a war on Islam.