US enters more delicate phase of war

TOM BOWMAN

WASHINGTON, JANUARY 7: American airstrikes in Afghanistan have slowed down to a trickle. Searches of caves around Tora Bora are nearing the end. A new and improved cave-busting bomb slated for the front two weeks ago is now being held in reserve. These developments and similar ones provide ample evidence that Operation Enduring Freedom, the US military campaign against the Taliban and the Al Qaeda terrorists, has entered a new phase, one that is more dogged, potentially hazardous and diplomatically sensitive.

The new face of the war is taking shape throughout the war-torn country. Small groups of American soldiers have joined Afghan fighters on raids and intelligence-gathering efforts, an open-ended effort that will likely take months and increase the possibility of casualties.

On Friday, an Army special operations soldier was killed as he joined Afghan fighters in a firefight against enemy forces near Khost. ‘‘The risk to our soldiers from ambush and booby traps is pretty significant now,’’ one Defense official said before the report of the soldier’s death near Khost.

Hundreds of Marines in the south are being replaced by Army airborne troops, who will form a garrison force of greater duration — one that will include MPs to guard the growing number of prisoners and a ‘‘quick reaction’’ capability to mount helicopter-borne raids against enemy hide-outs. Several hundred special operations soldiers also are working throughout the country.

At the same time, allied relationships are being tested. Anti-Taliban Afghan fighters are in some instances negotiating the surrender of their onetime foes, which Pentagon officials fear could lead to some of them once again slipping away. ‘‘You have seen many people disappear where all these negotiations have gone on,’’ a Pentagon official said. In addition, there were tribal groups around Tora Bora ‘‘selling passage to Pakistan’’.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters last week that much remains to be done despite a new anti-Taliban government and the rout of Al Qaeda. ‘‘We’ve got a lot left to do in Afghanistan,’’ said Rumsfeld, adding that U.S. military forces will remain there ‘‘as long as it takes to complete the mission.’’ The first part of that updated mission is to make sure the Taliban ‘‘stays out of power,’’ he said, the second is to track down the elusive Taliban and Al Qaeda leadership. Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, a conservative think tank, said the US is finding itself in a ‘‘peculiar twilight’’ in Afghanistan, ‘‘somewhere between mopping up and nation building.’’

‘‘We fought a limited war using proxies,’’ he said. ‘‘We haven’t lost, but we haven’t won decisively.’’ The top Taliban leadership, including Mullah Mohammed Omar and Osama bin Laden, are still at large. The Afghan fighters are becoming less interested in pursuing those top leaders and their remaining supporters, Thompson noted.

Increasingly, that job will have to be handled by US troops, he said. Thompson said the US strategy of relying heavily on a proxy force might have outlived its usefulness. The Afghans have achieved their goal of a new non-Taliban government and a collapsed Al Qaeda network, while some US objectives have yet to be reached.

‘‘We’re now facing the problem you always have when you use proxies. Your strategy works only when your interests are closely aligned,’’ he said. ‘‘When your interests diverge, the strategy unravels.’’ (LATWP)