[geoschmo]

I think the US governments position is clear that they want to limit the use of force to that which is necessary to eliminate the terrorist organizations. Note the effort in the Last couple days to downplay a possible Iraqi connection to the terrorist plot. They are trying hard to keep this limited to the actual point at hand, and not allow it to become larger. Whether they will be successful or not remains to be seen.

I think it is obvious, despite the "Get Terrorism everywhere" rhetoric, that Bin Laden is the target. The tough stance towards the government of Afghanistan is expected considering they have protected Bin Laden for so long. We've been wanting to "talk" to the Taleban for years about him, and now when they see their guest has put them at risk, they are willing to talk.

I think the extent of damage to the Afghan military and civilians will be in whatever proportion that they allow themselves to be placed to closely too him.

Calling this a war is basically a way of telling the government of Afghanistan that we are not going to stop at their border and wait for them to turn him over. We will no doubt be putting men on the ground in their country and flying our planes over their airspace, actions that would be considered acts of war. Well, we are saying, this is a war, so we are released of those constraints.

But the objective of this war isn't to take their territory, so it won't be necessary to bomb far and wide, and occupy the country with hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

At least I hope that is what we are doing. Anything more could have serious repercussions. Even keeping to this limited tack is going to take a lot of skill. We don't have much room for error.

Geoschmo