WASHINGTON: Already under pressure to curtail the air campaign over Afghanistan, the United States is facing a crucial decision in coming weeks that will put its fragile partnerships in the Arab world to the test: whether to continue dropping bombs during Ramazan.
The United States’ most important Arab partners, including Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have grown increasingly vocal in calling for a swift end to US bombing. The issue is taking on greater urgency with the approach of Ramazan in mid-November, the most sacred period on the Islamic calendar.
President Pervez Musharraf, for one, suggested last week that bombing during Ramazan would stoke anti-American sentiment that has been inflamed by the US attacks. A backlash could threaten the stability of moderate Arab regimes, whose fall would likely clear the way for more hardline, anti-Western governments in the region, analysts say.
Beyond that, some observers also believe the United States is losing the public relations war in the Muslim world, despite efforts to frame the attacks not as a war against Islam but against terrorism and the Taliban regime harbouring terror suspect Osama bin Laden. Bombing on holy days would provide Osama bin Laden and the Taliban a potent propaganda tool, reinforcing the notion of a Christian attack against Islam, they say.
Still, the Pentagon has given little indication that it plans to suspend bombing during Ramazan. “There continue to be terrorist threats in this world, and the sooner we deal with this problem, the less likely it is that you’re going to have additional terrorist attacks,” Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week when asked about Musharraf’s call for a bombing halt.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has said he would like to see a breakthrough in the military campaign by mid-November, when Ramazan and the brutal Afghan winter start, but also said that the United States was prepared to fight during the holy period if necessary.
That view was echoed by one defence official. “Ask me a couple of days before” Ramazan starts, the official said of a bombing halt. “The decision will be made based on the status of the campaign.”
Rumsfeld also noted that “history is replete” with examples of Arab nations fighting wars during those holy days. Egypt and Syria launched a war against Israel during Ramazan in 1973, and Iran and Iraq fought through Ramazan year after year in the war between 1980 and 1988.
But one Middle Eastern diplomat in Washington said that Rumsfeld’s analysis missed the point. It is one thing when Muslim fights Muslim during Ramazan, the diplomat said, but “outsiders fighting against Muslims - that’s a different matter.”
The diplomat, predicted that the cost of continuing the air war during Ramazan would be high in the battle for Arab public opinion. Bombing during Ramazan, the diplomat said, will “make it a lot more difficult” to convince the average person this war isn’t against Islam.
“Anyway, what will Americans gain by continuing during Ramazan? Do they really think they can achieve this end goal in a month?” the diplomat said.
Senator Bob Graham, chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, is one of the few US officials publicly urging a bombing halt during Ramazan. He argues that the United States will need the cooperation of many Arab states in the war on terrorism, so it must be sensitive to their concerns.
“Part of that sensitivity is, do you conduct military operations during their most holy of days? My sense would be that you would not, therefore putting the pressure on the actions that will occur between now and Nov 17,” Graham said.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service (C) Newsday.
