Sergey Snegov: There will be no war. It is not needed

The events around Afghanistan are developing exactly the way we predicted. Namely: America is still shaking its fists, threatening the Taliban with bombardment and retribution. The start of the military operation has been delayed several times, so there is a suspicion growing the war would not start. The ultimatum sank into oblivion together with President Bush’s determination to clean the nest of the international terrorists and destroy bin Laden. It was expected, the battle would start in the forthcoming week, after the ultimatum term was over. The military maneuvers, which were performed by the American forces seemed to be a good proof for that.

The British Observer frightened the Taliban yesterday the battle would start that instant. However, the aircraft-carriers still sail in the ocean, the missiles are in their mines, the aircrafts are in the hangars. The media reported on the new date to begin the Afghan war – “this week.”

The Taliban is pressing on the USA. They claim bin Laden is in Afghanistan, then they said they collaborated with him for many years and the collaboration continued. The question to deliver the prime suspect is not being raised. The administration of the Afghan movement just says: “The USA will be really sorry, if they start the land operation in Afghanistan.” May be they are making themselves more and more sure there will be no such operation?

There was a point to attack Afghanistan right after the tragedy in the US. It was the right time, when the war would really look like the act of retribution. We would not go into such issues like who is to blame and what to do. The publications of the American mass media, the letters from our readers had the common idea: show us, who is the enemy and we will take revenge.

There was a point to bomb Afghanistan in a week after the terror attack. There was so much anger in the world, the ruins of the World Trade Center were still burning. What is the point to bomb Afghanistan now? The commotion has settled down, there are mass demonstrations taking place in Britain, America, in other western countries as a protest against the beginning of the new war in the world. More and more people join those actions of protest.

What can the bombing bring? Nothing, with the exception for victims among the civilians and military men. It is also clear the spread-eagle spirit in the USA went down a lot over the recent weeks. And this means that the presidential administration may suffer a failure from the point of view of propaganda campaign. In the beginning the specialists will appear on television wondering what it was all for? The newspapers will pick this up and look at the situation from the different angle…

The more time passes since the moment of the terror attack in the USA, the more pointless the military preparations become. May be the goal of the global anti-terrorist hysteria is not the global anti-terrorist war?

The American administration managed to do the things that could be dreamed of in the beginning of the Balkan campaigns. NATO’s control over Kosovo, Macedonia and other countries can not be compared to the operation that has been carried through by NATO recently. The troops entered several countries, including the post-Soviet ones – this did not seem to be real a very short time ago. There were prerequisites laid to break-up the Commonwealth of Independent States. If the situation develops the way it is going now, then Russia will lose its influence in the East. The air space of the vast majority of countries is open for the NATO Air Forces, the states express their readiness for further cooperation. U.S. doubled its influence over just 2 months. So shaking fists is worthy. Moreover, a couple of bombs could be dropped on Afghanistan. The most important thing is to execute the major goal. It is being executed, rather actively. Bush called the up-coming war “the strange war” – not for nothing.

Sergey Snegov PRAVDA.Ru

AP photo: A Muslim man holds up Islam's holy book, the Quran during a demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Monday, Oct. 1, 2001