ATLANTA/JABAL-US-SARAJ, Afghanistan (REUTERS) — Urging Americans to use their “eyes and ears” to thwart the forces of global terror, President Bush sought to bolster the resolve of a nervous nation on Thursday as anti-Taliban forces readied an offensive against a strategic northern city.
Bush, speaking to a public rattled by threats of fresh terror and a spate of anthrax outbreaks, said the country had received its “marching orders” after the devastating hijack attacks on Sept. 11.
“In the face of this great tragedy, Americans are refusing to give terrorists the power,” Bush said in a televised address from Atlanta, urging greater public vigilance.
As Bush and other U.S. officials pledged to drive home the campaign against Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban and its “guest,” fugitive militant Osama bin Laden, anti-Taliban forces said they were preparing to take advantage of scorching U.S. air strikes to launch an offensive against the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a key prize.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, a pivotal U.S. ally, warned the Western allies they risked losing the image war if bomb strikes continued to kill Afghan civilians during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins later this month. Many saw the U.S.-led offensive as “a war against the poor … people of Afghanistan,” he said.
But U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice vowed the bombing would continue and said the United States would ultimately get bin Laden, the prime suspect in the hijack attacks that killed some 4,800 people on U.S. soil.
The head of the U.S. military effort, Army Gen. Tommy Franks, rejected criticism that the U.S. campaign had been “timid” — although news reports said he planned to ask Bush on Friday for more resources to wage the fight.
Working to raise spirits at home and abroad for what U.S. officials say will be a protracted conflict, Bush met the leaders of Brazil and Ireland and laid out before the American people what was being done to protect them from new attacks.
His message was patience and progress as the war on the Taliban and their guest failed to produce any clear victories after more than a month of airstrikes and the five-week investigation into attacks with the germ warfare weapon anthrax had yet to provide any answers.
Bush toured the front line in the U.S. struggle against bioterrorism — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta — and health authorities urged Americans to remain vigilant over the threat of anthrax, even though no new cases of the deadly spores have been reported for more than a week.
About 32,000 Americans began taking antibiotics in the past month in case they were exposed to anthrax bacteria, which have already killed four people and infected 13 others.
‘EYES AND EARS’
Bush used his prime-time speech to ask Americans to use their “eyes and ears” to help deter future terror attacks, and he announced plans for a volunteer civil-defense service to help respond to emergencies.
Seeking both to reassure Americans about their security and to bolster the country’s growing sense of unity, Bush said people had new responsibilities and the way to help was to make a commitment to service in one’s own community.
He also urged the nation to get on with life as usual, saying that to do otherwise would be to abandon America’s values.
“A terrorism alert is not a signal to stop your life,” Bush said. “It is a call to be vigilant — to know that your government is on high alert, and to add your eyes and ears to our efforts to find and stop those who want to do us harm.
“We will no doubt face new challenges. But we have our marching orders. My fellow Americans, let’s roll!” he said to hearty applause from about 5,000 people at Georgia’s World Congress Center.
Rice, in an interview with BBC World, said bin Laden’s al Qaeda network had been on the run since the start of the military campaign on its camps in Afghanistan 33 days ago.
“But we all know that we will get him,” she said, according to a transcript.
Rice said the campaign had disrupted al Qaeda’s training camps strung across the mountainous central-Asian country, but she again rejected calls for the United States to stop the bombing with the onset of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in about 10 days.
“We have no choice but to root out al Qaeda, to make certain that the Taliban cannot harbor them,” Rice said. “We cannot pause and allow them to plan another major attack against the United States.”
Attorney General John Ashcroft said the United States had won its opening battle in the war on terrorism, adding that the recent period of “extremely high alert” had passed.
Ashcroft, who announced a “wartime reorganization” of the country’s justice and law enforcement resources to meet the new challenge, said vigilance by the American people had helped to avert another major terror attack.
TALIBAN FOES PREPARE ATTACK
In Afghanistan, the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance said it would move on two fronts against Mazar-i-Sharif, which straddles supply routes to Kabul in the south and commands the most important airfield in the north.
“We will launch the two-pronged attack from the southeast and southwest,” Ashraf Nadeem, spokesman for the Northern Alliance, told Reuters.
Franks, the U.S. commander, pointed to what he called the “big fight” occurring near Mazar-i-Sharif and dismissed criticism that the U.S. campaign had been too “timid.”
“We like the progress we have made to this point,” he told reporters. “It is only those who believe that all of this should be done in two weeks’ time or in one month or perhaps in two months who are disappointed by this.”
U.S. officials said Franks was to brief Bush on Friday and discuss needs for “resources” to fight the war.
NBC News reported that Franks planned to ask Bush for more warplanes to increase bombings in Afghanistan and to tell the president that improved intelligence would help determine the exact locations of Taliban troops and their leaders.
Residents of Mazar-i-Sharif told Reuters that U.S. jets had been bombing the area and the Taliban were sending hundreds of fighters to reinforce their lines.
“Trucks and cars loaded with Taliban men are heading to the north day and night for this purpose,” one resident said by telephone.
The Taliban’s stronghold in the southern city of Kandahar also came under fierce all-night bombardment, aimed at what were believed to be Taliban positions outside the city, CNN said.
And U.S. planes roared over Kabul, en route to bomb Taliban front-line positions just north of the capital.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said the Taliban had arrested 15 Afghans, including a former army colonel, on suspicion of spying for the United States.
“We are keeping a strict eye on American spies. They are traitors to Afghanistan and will never escape,” AIP quoted a Taliban intelligence agency spokesman as saying.
Pakistan, hardening its stance, asked the Taliban to close its consulate in the southern port city of Karachi. Washington hailed the move but suggested that the Taliban Embassy in Islamabad be permitted to operate as a conduit between the warring sides.
PAKISTAN SEEKS RAMADAN BOMBING HALT
Pakistan’s Musharraf, on a trip that will end with a meeting with Bush on the fringes of a session of the U.N. General Assembly, said he would try to persuade the American leader to suspend bombing during Ramadan.
“It is being perceived in the whole world … as if this were a war against the poor, miserable and innocent people of Afghanistan,” Musharraf said on a visit to Paris. “One would desire it to be short and targeted.”
But Jordan’s King Abdullah appeared to dismiss calls from other Muslim nations for a Ramadan pause.
“All of us would like to see the situation in Afghanistan brought to a conclusion sooner rather than later,” he said during a visit to London. “But we have to remember that there are specific military objectives that have to be achieved.”
Critics in the Muslim world and beyond have expressed growing concern about the civilian Afghan death toll. The Taliban have put the toll at 1,500, a figure the United States rejects as exaggerated.
In Pakistan, pro-Taliban Islamic parties vowed to go ahead with a general strike on Friday despite a military government crackdown, including the detention of some of their leaders.
