US-Russia Forces Unite

[Guest guest]

As US-Russian Force Prepares to Go into Afghanistan

Mid East is Temporarily Sidelined

 

"On Sunday, September 23, Bush telephoned Russian president

Vladimir Putin and spoke to him for 70 minutes.

The moment both men hung up, the world we live in had

changed and the strategic situation in all its regions, including

the Middle East, had shifted radically."

 

 

2 October: The most significant feature of the imminent US

assault against Afghanistan is the major role to be played by

Russian military might, following the new and far-reaching

understanding reached between President George W. Bush and

President Vladimir Putin.

DEBKAfile's military sources reveal that the Tadjikistan based

Russian 201st Motorized Rifle Division was beefed up Tuesday

with staff commando units, Pashtun speakers and interpreters.

Its members also received American-made anti-terrorist

equipment and weapons flown in especially.

DEBKAfile adds: The anti-terror alliance has split its task into two

parts. The Americans and Russians will go for Bin Laden and

his Al Qaeda force in the Pamir Mountains, while the UK and

Western allies will take on the Taliban in south Afghanistan. 

 

DEBKAfile's sources in Washington say that as late as the

second week of September, U.S. leaders still harbored the belief

that a world coalition could play an important role against

terrorism. But a quarter-century of State Department policy

effectively collapsed after Saudi Arabia, and in its wake the entire

Arab world including Egypt, denied the United States the use of

military bases on their soil to strike at Muslim Afghanistan.

Adding insult to injury, the facilities were built with U.S.

know-how, technology and military expertise.

The Americans, a practical people, instead of complaining

publicly about the snub, acted swiftly, effectively and cleverly.

On Sunday, September 23, Bush telephoned Russian president

Vladimir Putin and spoke to him for 70 minutes.

The moment both men hung up, the world we live in had

changed and the strategic situation in all its regions, including

the Middle East, had shifted radically.

The United States and Russia, two old foes who faced off

against each other for half a century, became allies in a move

that will influence history for the next 25 years.

Both predominantly Christian countries joined in a military,

economic and political alliance to defeat Muslim international

terror.

In one telephone call, Bush restored Moscow to the position of

power it enjoyed between the 1950s and 1980s.

Pakistan and Turkey will provide window dressing for this

superpower alliance – the former because it has no choice, and

the latter, out of choice. Central Asian countries, such as

Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Christian

Georgia are falling in line behind them.

The strategic epicenter has now moved from the Middle East

and Arabian Peninsula to Russia and Central Asia.

This new world alignment sidelines anything Saudi crown prince

Abdullah, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Syrian

president Bashar Assad have to say. The same applies to the

words and actions of Yasser Arafat, Israeli prime minister Ariel

Sharon and foreign minister. Now It's war-war, not jaw-jaw.