Ramadan Approach Pressures U.S.
By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Muslim allies, whose support is considered essential to the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign, are pressuring the United States to score a major victory on the ground before the Islamic holy month Ramadan begins around Nov. 17 or agree to a lengthy delay in the Afghan operation.
"Emotionally, it will be, I think, explosive ... if military actions are still being done in Afghanistan" during Ramadan, Indonesia's foreign minister, Hasan Wirayuda, warned Sunday during a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, perhaps the strongest Muslim backer of the air campaign against Afghanistan, has also warned of a Muslim backlash if intense fighting continues during Ramadan.
During an appearance Monday on CNN's "Larry King Live," Musharraf said he hoped "that this campaign comes to an end before the month of Ramadan, and one would hope for restraint during the month of Ramadan."
Such a delay, however, would cost the United States considerable momentum at a critical period. By the end of Ramadan, the harsh Afghan winter will have set in, closing key passes through the mountains and limiting air and ground operations.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has played down the Ramadan factor, maintaining there is no deadline for completing U.S. military action in Afghanistan.
"History is replete with instances where Muslim nations have fought among themselves or with other countries during various important holy days for their religion, and it has not inhibited them historically," he said Tuesday.
However, America's Muslim allies don't see it that way. Muslims fighting among themselves during Ramadan is one thing. Non-Muslims attacking Muslims is another matter, they say.
Governments in Pakistan, Indonesia and elsewhere have been struggling to suppress Muslim outrage over the air campaign, which President Bush initiated Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Throughout the Islamic world, radical Muslim clerics have been repeating the Taliban line that the air campaign is an assault against Islam _ despite U.S. insistence that it is not.
Although the message has not been universally accepted, the Pakistanis and others fear that opposition to the air campaign may increase if Muslim civilians are being killed during a time when their religion calls for prayer and reflection.
Ramadan - a lunar month of 29 or 30 days - is the month when the Prophet Muhammad first began receiving revelations of the Quran, Islam's holy book. During the month, Muslim abstain from food, drink and sex from sunrise to sunset and are supposed to be charitable toward others.
There is no guarantee that a stepped-up U.S. bombing campaign will crack the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies by the time Ramadan begins.
Former Pakistani generals with long experience dealing with the Taliban warn that the Islamic militia will put up stiff resistance.
"The pressure is now on for the American military to do something before winter and preferably before Ramadan," said Hamid Gul, a retired Pakistani general and former head of Pakistan's secret service. "They now have to achieve a certain target in a certain time-frame. The clock is ticking."
And the goal of bringing about a new, broad-based government in Afghanistan is not one that can be quickly arranged.
A fractious alliance of opposition groups has been battling the Taliban since 1996, but made little progress. Pakistan and others have pressed for the alliance not to be allowed to take power for itself. When they ruled Kabul from 1992 to 1996, they destroyed most of the capital.
"If you allow the northern alliance to capture Kabul, a massacre will follow," retired Pakistani Gen. Talat Masoud warned. "And if they capture Kabul, how will you dislodge them from there and put in a broad-based government? That will be quite a dilemma for the Americans."
Fearing chaos if the alliance seizes Kabul, Musharraf has called for declaring Kabul a "no-go" area.
"I would go to the extent of saying that Kabul should be maintained as neutral zone that nobody enters, because I see that maybe atrocities (could) start in Kabul, if at all, if the vacuum is filled by the northern alliance," Musharraf told a Lebanese television station.
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