Administration decides to assume greater risks

THOMAS E. RICKS THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON -- In launching a ground offensive in the dead of winter in some of the harshest terrain in Afghanistan, the U.S. military seems bent not only on crushing a pocket of al-Qaida fighters but also on sending a broader message: That it is willing to put troops in harm's way as it prosecutes the war on terrorism.

For the first time in the Afghan war, U.S. forces are at the forefront of ground combat. "It is more dangerous," said Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. commander in the war. But, he added, "At the end of the day, the sure way to work against the enemy is to put people on the ground, and that's what we've done in this case."

That shift is reflected in the sharply escalating number of U.S. casualties: During the past three days, more U.S. troops have died than were killed by hostile fire in the previous five months of the war.

So while the tactical goal is to eradicate the al-Qaida network, said retired Marine Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor, the even more significant strategic goal may be to show the world the depth of U.S. resolve.

"It gives lie to the belief that Americans can only fight from 35,000 feet," he said.

U.S. forces are now engaged in the fiercest ground combat they've seen since the October 1993 "Black Hawk Down" firefight in Mogadishu, Somalia, that left 18 U.S. soldiers dead. Osama bin Laden has cited the subsequent U.S. withdrawal from Somalia as evidence of the country's weakness.

900 troops

Now soldiers from some of the same Army units involved in Mogadishu -- the 10th Mountain Division and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment -- are fighting and dying in the mountains of Afghanistan. During the past three days, the 900 U.S. troops involved in the fight have suffered at least seven dead and forty wounded, officials said.

The fierce fighting against the pocket of al-Qaida fighters in the caves and valleys of Paktia province may become even more difficult, warned retired Army Col. Johnny Brooks, an expert in infantry tactics. "If the U.S. forces don't go down in the holes, they'll never get all of them out of there," he said. And a defense official noted that the United States finally has given its enemy the ground fight it wanted.

There are likely to be additional bouts of tough ground combat in the Afghan war, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cautioned Monday at the Pentagon. "This will not be the last such operation in Afghanistan," he said. "I think we have to expect that there are other sizable pockets, that there will be other battles of this type."

Planning for the attack began weeks ago, after U.S. intelligence reported that hundreds of al-Qaida fighters were slipping from Kandahar and the collapsed front lines in northern Afghanistan back into their old haunts in the caves of Paktia province, hard against the Pakistani border.

At first, satellites and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft were used to track the movement into the hills, a senior military officer said. Then, as planning proceeded in mid-February, U.S. personnel were inserted on the ground to begin closer observation.

The al-Qaida fighters "started to get together in a place where they could have enough mass to be effective," Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon briefing Monday. "And we've been following that, allowing it to develop until we thought it was the proper time to strike."

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