Search and destroy
Injured and angry, a determined America strikes back
Seconds after the plane rammed the Pentagon, half a dozen Army officers fleeing the blast zone came across a prostrate, partially handicapped janitor. They hoisted him to their shoulders and carried the dazed man through twisted debris to safety--military bureaucrats turned combat soldiers removing a wounded comrade from the battlefield. Simultaneously, Secretary of Defense and former jet pilot Donald Rumsfeld was helping the injured until he was pulled away by aides to attend to his official duties. The assault on the nerve center of America's military might touched the gut emotions of those who serve there, and no one doubted its jarring implications. The attack "really steels us," said a senior Pentagon official. "In our minds, it's a declaration of war."
Within hours, the armed forces were on hair-trigger alert; a day later, the nation was on a war footing. By week's end, history's biggest dragnet for America's most elusive enemies was spreading across the globe. Authorities were questioning thousands of people here and abroad, but the prime suspect, Osama bin Laden, remained at large. The first retaliatory shots had yet to be fired, but swift military action is a sure prelude to what looms as a lengthy struggle against an enemy that Secretary of State Colin Powell has promised to destroy "branch and root."
The hunt to identify and locate the terrorists, and punish those who harbor them, could encompass up to 10 nations from South Asia to Africa and the Middle East. The Bush administration made it clear that professed neutrality will no longer afford protection. Under the new rules of engagement, the warning from the United States is to cooperate--or become a potential target. Said a senior Pentagon official: "We are going to change governments if we have to."
Options. As Americans thirst for revenge, the most obvious target is bin Laden, who has operated from Afghanistan under the protection of the extremist Taliban rulers. A military strike there is seen as likely, but weekend intelligence reports said that his string of camps and training centers in Afghanistan and the Middle East were empty. Given President Bush's vow to eradicate terrorism's support structures, observers predict a campaign to destroy bin Laden facilities and Taliban government and military installations.
Pentagon professionals, seething with frustration that previous terrorist attacks blamed on bin Laden had drawn only tepid, rubble-bouncing cruise-missile strikes on his mountain redoubts, were talking seriously of sending in crack units like the 82nd Airborne Division and the 101st Air Assault Division. The operation against worldwide terror networks could see the biggest overseas deployment of U.S. troops since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The range of contemplated options could place several Army divisions on the ground in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, and even Iran. U.S. News has learned that some war planners are advocating operations as audacious as toppling the Shiite government in Iran, as well as Iraq's Saddam Hussein.
Whatever its form or scope, the campaign would likely be launched first against Afghanistan with missile and bomb strikes, along with special-operations hits to neutralize bin Laden camps and Taliban facilities. Ground units would then mobilize to destroy the terrorist sites. With added diplomatic and economic pressure, the Taliban rulers would, planners hope, turn their "guest" over to America--if he indeed remains in the country and under their control.
Any action against Iran, which is linked to major terrorism events such as the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. service members, would require heavy force. "If it was done rapidly and violently, it could achieve pretty significant results," says a senior Pentagon official. Iraq seems to have withdrawn from promoting active terrorism, but Saddam Hussein's forces regularly fire at U.S. aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones. The Bush administration has vowed a tough new approach to curbing the Gulf War dictator whose troops are now far weaker. "We could go in and win," says one retired four-star general. "His divisions would put up some resistance, but then they would roll up and fold."
With the drums of war beating loudly, several cautioned restraint--among them Secretary Rumsfeld, who opened a Pentagon prayer meeting asking for "patience, to measure our lust for action." Hasty action that kills large numbers of civilians or destroys religious sites could infuriate the entire Arab world, worsen Mideast violence, and further foment the kind of anti-American hatred that spawned bin Laden and his cohorts.
Military brass have long grumbled that terrorists have been regarded as criminals to be brought to justice rather than military adversaries to be annihilated--but that policy will now change. "It wasn't a deterrent," said one official. "Now, we are redefining war."
With Thomas Hayden
This story appears in the September 24, 2001 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.