If a united effort to unearth the agents of world terrorism is not made now, much worse promises to follow.

The horrific events and their aftermath of the last two weeks bring to mind a few lines of a famed World War I poem - "In Flanders Fields." By changing just a couple of words, the lines evoke, for me, the current mood of the United States. Slightly changed, they read:

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In shattered streets.
A Country Aroused

I came to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois as a young student fifty years ago. I have lived through the upheavals and events of that entire period, including the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War and "Desert Storm." Never, but never, have I seen the country so aroused, so united, so defiant, so determined NOT to break faith with those who died on 11 September and "lie in shattered streets." The citizens of 80 nations besides the U.S. died in the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. Over 250 came from India.

Fire fighters, policemen and rescue workers continue to work night and day, beyond exhaustion in the debris of New York's shattered streets around the demolished World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in D.C. Millions have been donated to the relief effort. American flags fly everywhere and the shops are sold out. Prayer vigils in English, Hebrew and Arabic have been held all over the country. For the moment, the ideological differences between Democrats and Republicans have disappeared. Both, along with most of the country, have rallied behind President Bush, whose speech to Congress and the nation gave definition to what lies ahead. An editorial in The New York Times suggested that it "may be the most critical speech of his life." No president in history has the approval rating Bush has at the moment. The latest Gallup poll puts it at 90 percent*.

Most nations around the world, including Russia and China, have offered to join in the "war" upon terrorism. NATO activated Article V of its charter, that states that an act of war against one member, is an act against all. The United Nations has passed strong resolutions in support. What lies ahead is is a long, hard, costly, patient struggle that will test the character and fiber of the American people and its allies.

Who are the Terrorists?

But who are the terrorists against whom, the U.S. has declared war, and has called upon the world, to unite? Many are puzzled. Do they include the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the Kurds in Turkey, the Basques in Spain? They do not, for the present moment. President Bush defined the enemy as precisely as possible. It consists of every terrorist group "of global reach" who attacks the U.S. and its allies. It consists of "every government that supports them" unless that support is immediately withdrawn.

The immediate targets are the Taliban government of Afghanistan and its protégé Osama bin Laden and his loose terrorist organization al Qaeda, that has links to other such "organizations in many countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movements of Uzbekistan." To those who demand evidence of Osama bin Laden's and al Qaeda's involvement in the attack upon the U.S., the Bush administration plans to issue two reports within a few days, a public report from the State Department and a secret one drawn up by U.S. intelligence agencies which will also include evidence from foreign sources. Evidence gathered against bin Laden for his earlier indictment in the bombing of the U.S.'s African embassies might also be cited. Only the most trusted nations, it is reported, will receive all the gathered information.

But the issuance of such reports, whether public or private, is of vital importance for the U.S.'s Muslim allies like Egypt and Pakistan. It will provide their leaders with evidence to justify their stands on behalf of the U.S. It is vital that such information be provided before the U.S. launches any major strike against Afghanistan, which might create a backlash, especially in countries like Pakistan where support, among the general population, for Afghanistan is strong. It is ironic that in the past, Pakistan's intelligence services are reported to have given the Afghan government extensive aid.

Al Qaida's Record

A group of the President's senior advisors, it is rumoured, led by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul D. Wolfowitz wanted to spread the net wider and name other states who supposedly sponsor terrorism, especially Iraq. But after also consulting with Secretary of State Powell and his national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, President Bush decided that the initial assault would be on those perceived to be directly responsible for the September 11 attack on the U.S. The President claimed that all the evidence gathered following the attack "points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda."

This, of course, is not the first time Osama bin Laden and his group have been suspected of terrorist attacks. They have been linked in 1993 to the World Trade Centre bombing in New York, the bombing of a Philippine airliner in 1994, an assassination attempt on President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt during his visit to Ethiopia in 1995, the attack that killed 19 U.S. soldiers at a military housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in 1996, the destruction of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, that killed 235 and injured around 5,500 people, in 1998, and, finally, the infamous attack upon the U.S.S. Cole in Aden harbour, that killed 17 U.S. sailors, in 2000.
Osama bin Laden's Call

Osama bin Laden has been indicted, in abstentia, in the U.S. for the embassy bombings and the attack upon the U.S.S. Cole. He has never hidden his or al Qaeda's mission. It is to expel, by any means, from Muslim areas of the world, non-Muslims, especially Westerners and Muslim leaders who have strayed from his definition of Islam. He has called upon all true Muslims to kill Americans, who more than any other group symbolize godless and corrupt materialism. Without admitting participation, he has congratulated the perpetrators of the World Trade Centre and Pentagon attacks.

U.S. Response

In his speech to Congress President put the Taliban on notice:
"Deliver to U.S. authorities all the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land. Release all foreign nationals..... Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities. Give the U.S. full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating."

Since the Taliban have refused, they and al Qaeda will be the U.S.'s first targets. As Bush said, "The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate."

A massive build up of U.S. forces in the friendly areas surrounding Afghanistan is already in process. Aid will doubtless be given to what is known as the Northern Alliance, an indigenous Afghan force that holds around 10 percent of Northern Afghanistan and continues to fight against the Taliban. Their continued resistance will be invaluable. But how else is this war going to be conducted? Perhaps war is the wrong word, unless one understands that this will be a war unlike any other. For the U.S. there will be no front lines, no massive encounters of troops and armour, no battles on the sea or in the sky. A good part of it may be conducted in secret away from public view and TV cameras. As President Bush put it,

A War with a Difference

"This war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat." Most probably, it will be a war of quick, surgical strikes by commando forces like the Rangers, by covert operations, by stealth attacks by B-1 bombers. A major part of it will be a war of economic attrition where the allied coalition will use intelligence and the exchange of information to go after and destroy al Qaeda's sources of economic and monetary support and, where possible, freeze its assets. President Bush asked for patience "in what will be a long struggle." Will the U.S. and its allies have that patience? This is one of the great unknowns. Political leadership has no greater task. For if this opportunity is lost, if through fatigue and temporary frustration the U.S. and its coalition give up, a great opportunity to combat an ever-growing world problem will have been lost. So far the response to incidents of terror have been sporadic and even ineffectual, like President's Clinton's response to the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Africa. A number of cruise missiles were launched against a pharmaceutical factory in the Sudan, which was supposed to a terrorist factory, and against a base of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, which he had evacuated. Nothing more was done. There have been intelligence victories in preventing terrorist episodes, many of which the public hears nothing about. But no terrorist attack has been on the scale of devastation and loss of life than the one on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Well over 6500 are dead and over 6000 have been injured. This ought to be warning enough to civilized regimes in the world. Now is the time to unite, to cooperate, to exchange vital information and where possible to act together.

Now or Never

Even in the U.S. the various government agencies - like the C.I.A., the F.B.I., the I.N.S - that did have vital information did not coordinate their efforts successfully. This is why President Bush appointed Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania to a newly created cabinet level office called Homeland Security. His first task will be to coordinate the more than 40 agencies that have the duty of preventing with terrorist attacks. If a united effort to unearth the agents of world terrorism is not made now, much worse promises to follow. Even now there are fears of attacks using chemical and biological weapons. Besides Afghanistan the governments who sheltered or encouraged world terrorism in the past _ Iraq, the Sudan, Libya and others _ have been put on notice. The world can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to their doings.

Mr. Minoo Adenwalla is Professor of Government and the Mary Mortimer Professor of Liberal Studies, Lawrence University.

October 11, One Month Later

It is exactly a month since Black Tuesday. Though the U.S. President reacted quickly in words, he did not indulge in bucking-bronco-cowboy follow-up action. First came, the round of democratic coalition, with other States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. In the early days, they committed themselves to honouring Clause 5 of the Treaty that an attack on one, would be regarded as an attack on all. Only Britain has entered the physical skirmish, so far. Mr. Blair appears to enjoy Margaret Thatcher's special relationship withUncle Sam.
Predictably, because its logistical support is vital. Pakistan has got much more from the U.S. than India, which was among the first and earliest to pledge its support to the U.S. Global War on Terrorism. While supporting the U.S. global war on terrorism, Pakistan-backed terrorists opened a blood bath within the Kashmir Legislature grounds. Though India has drawn repeated notice to the omission, the terrorist groups, deprived of funding, repeatedly leave out, those which have plagued India.

Even when President Bush's speech-makers write up some eloquent rhetoric, the record shows that the U.S. has spawned the Frankenstein's monster which now mocks it. In the thick of the air-battles, which have blasted Afghanistan's air-defences, Mullah Mohammed Omar, defiantly said that more of the U.S. will feel the horror of more bombings, by kamikaze jehadis. The Muslim world, while joining America partially, has also reiterated that the war against terror should not include attack on other Muslim countries.

General Musharaff's quandary is pathetic. Along with the U.S., Pakistan armed and trained the terrorist Taliban, which he is now forced to disown. He has had to change his Cabinet, dropping the extremists and keeping the moderates. The streets are a war theatre of jehadis supporting the Taliban cause.

The picture on the streets is different. Whether General Musharaff will keep his chair - or his head, remains an open question.

Meanwhile, a truly awesome air build up has flattened Afghanis targets, but as on date (11-1--2001), Osama bin Laden and the Mullah, are alive.

Dr. Louella Lobo Prabhu