ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <!-- saved from url=(0074)http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13819-2001Sep23?language=printer --> <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>washingtonpost.com: U.S. Debating Whether to Overthrow Taliban</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript> <!-- var axel = Math.random() + ""; var ord = axel * 1000000000000000000; //--> </SCRIPT> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4616.200" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <P><FONT size=+2><B>U.S. Debating Whether to Overthrow Taliban</B></FONT> <BR>Strength of Afghan Opposition Groups Being Gauged; Decision on Support Could Come This Week <P><FONT size=-1>By Alan Sipress<BR>Washington Post Staff Writer<BR>Monday, September 24, 2001; Page A11 </FONT> <P> <P>The Bush administration is debating whether to make the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan an explicit objective of the upcoming military campaign against Saudi exile Osama bin Laden and his followers, according to senior U.S. officials.</P> <P>Although President Bush warned in his speech to Congress last week that the Taliban must move immediately against bin Laden's cadres in Afghanistan or share their fate, American officials are still exploring the practicality of ousting Kabul's radical Islamic government.</P> <P>"We have had a discussion and debate among ourselves whether it is wise [to] embrace the overthrow of the Taliban as part of the strategy or not. That continues," a senior administration official said.</P> <P>Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other State Department officials have counseled that the United States be cautious about broadening the campaign's objectives to include the removal of the Taliban government, which is headed by Mullah Mohammad Omar. These officials worry that such an effort, even if pursued through covert support to rebel groups, could entangle the United States in Afghanistan's civil strife with little guarantee that a stable, pro-American government would emerge from the country's notoriously feuding militias.</P> <P>Some Pentagon officials have urged that the war effort directly take on the Afghan regime. If successful, these officials say, this strategy would deprive bin Laden's organization of a safe haven for its cadres and training camps while sending a blunt message to other governments considered by the United States to be state sponsors of terrorism.</P> <P>There is, however, no disagreement among Bush's chief advisers that the United States would welcome the removal of the current rulers and should step up its support for rebel groups. Administration officials reason that this backing would aid the American military effort by intensifying pressure on bin Laden's Taliban protectors, even if the United States stopped short of seeking a new regime in Kabul.</P> <P>Though the administration has yet to provide new financial or organizational backing to opposition groups, the senior official said some decisions about support could come early this week. A determination about seeking the overthrow of the Taliban is further off, the official said.</P> <P>When Powell was asked yesterday on ABC's "This Week" whether the administration intends to remove the Taliban leadership from power, he said the focus remains on bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.</P> <P>"With respect to the nature of the regime in Afghanistan, that is not uppermost in our minds right now. It wasn't 15 days ago, and it isn't right now, except to the extent that the Taliban regime continues to support Osama bin Laden," Powell said.</P> <P>The debate over whether to seek the Taliban's downfall has parallels with the disagreement last week over whether the United States should widen its military campaign to target the forces of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.</P> <P>Some in the administration, most notably Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, pressed for action against Iraq. Powell countered that this could "wreck" the international coalition now backing a firm U.S. response to the Sept. 11 attacks.</P> <P>In the debate over whether to try toppling the Taliban, the outcome is likely to turn primarily on the capability and willingness of dissident forces in Afghanistan to tackle Omar's loyalists with American support.</P> <P>"It's a very repressive and terrible regime," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on "Fox News Sunday." "The Afghan people would be better off without it. We will see what means are at our disposal to do that."</P> <P>Since the terrorist attacks, U.S. officials have been working to gain insight into the capabilities of different opposition forces and, in particular, have been seeking a deeper understanding of disgruntled factions within the Taliban itself.</P> <P>U.S. officials have been stepping up their contacts with commanders from the ethnic Pashtun community in southern Afghanistan that forms the Taliban's base of support, including contacts with elements inside the movement, according to sources in the administration and close to the opposition.</P> <P>"There are any number of factions within the Taliban that don't agree with Omar," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday on CBS's "Face the Nation." ". . . There are many in the Taliban who prefer that the Taliban not harbor Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda network."</P> <P>The administration hopes to tap into resentment within the highly nationalistic Taliban against the safe haven being provided to bin Laden and his followers, who are non-Afghan Arabs, and the international isolation this has engendered, U.S. officials said.</P> <P>At the same time, American officials have continued their long-standing talks with the opposition Northern Alliance, a coalition of Uzbeks, Tajiks and Hazaras that controls about 10 percent of Afghanistan.</P> <P>"We want to be in a position to be able to assist those in the south as well as those in the opposition in the north to move against the Taliban," the senior administration official said. "Any use of force, when it comes, could produce a situation in which these forces might be able to take advantage to make a change in Afghanistan."</P> <P>Administration officials would prefer that Afghan rebels end Omar's rule themselves, without a new government being imposed from outside by the United States.</P> <P>Afghanistan has repeatedly proven to be a quagmire for outside powers, most notably the Soviet Union, which suffered tremendous losses after its 1979 invasion. So, too, the United States has been burned by its covert support for Islamic militants who battled the Soviets before turning against their American sponsors in the 1990s.</P> <P>But it remains unclear whether any indigenous force has the means to expel the Taliban from Kabul, which the radical militia captured almost exactly five years ago. Though Burhanuddin Rabbani's Northern Alliance continues to be recognized by most countries as the legitimate government, it has suffered one military setback after another and has little following among the Pashtun, the country's largest ethnic group.</P> <P>A survey commissioned by the State Department found that about three-quarters of Afghans living in Taliban-controlled areas favor the convening of a tribal assembly to form a new government, U.S. officials said.</P> <P>Though the reliability of a study conducted in areas of Taliban domination must remain suspect, the survey cast serious doubt on Omar's standing, finding that only about one-eighth of those polled believed he was the Afghan commander best able to deal with the country's problems. About half named exiled King Mohammad Zahir Shah, heir to a Pashtun dynasty, as the best-suited leader.</P> <P>In recent days, the king, 86, has become much more active in trying to rally Afghan opponents of the Taliban. Administration officials said they welcome the king's initiative but have so far provided no official encouragement or financial support.</P> <P></P> <P> <CENTER>© 2001 The Washington Post Company </CENTER> <P></P></BODY></HTML>