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US military planners weigh options for retaliatory strikes

As American rescue workers continue to sift through the chaos left by last week's suicide attacks, thousands of investigators are working to piece together exactly what happened and who is responsible. Behind the scenes, US military planners are also hard at work, devising options for President George Bush to consider, as he decides how best to strike back.

The impact of the airplane suicide attacks is being compared to the shock of Pearl Harbour. Like President Franklin D Roosevelt, who on December 8 1941, declared, "We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God!", President Bush finds himself preparing the United States for war.

Mr Bush has said, "Our military is powerful and it's prepared." But, unlike 1941 the enemy is hard to identify and hard to find. The prime suspect is the Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding out in Afghanistan.

Andrew Koch - Washington Bureau Chief, Jane's Defence Weekly, said, "It's incredibly inhospitable territory there, which is not well suited for high-tech gadgetry, high-tech weapons, which is of course exactly what the Americans have and what our military might is based upon."

As a result, George Bush is describing a new sort of war, which could result in significant American casualties. It is likely to be a far cry from recent conflicts - which have sometimes seemed rather like a video game to those back home. But all the lethal power of the United States Air Force probably would not - on its own - defeat an enemy hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan.

For all its sophistication, the US military might need to rely on relatively low-tech soldiering to achieve its key objectives. Special forces and commando units could - in the words of President Bush - try to "smoke out" Osama bin Laden and his men.

Tim Brown - Senior Associate, GlobalSecurity.org, said, "They can hide, but they won't be able to operate. If they operate out in the open - even at night - we'll know that and we'll see it."

Still, no one is predicting the sort of overwhelming defeat inflicted on the Iraqi army in the Gulf War. As planners weigh the options, there are calls for a middle way which avoids the deployment of American foot soldiers, by using US air power to support the Northern Alliance - anti-Taliban forces already on the ground.

Michael O'Hanlon, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, said, "We cannot really turn the tide of battle with air power alone. We're going to have to help the Northern Alliance get stronger, and if we do that we can support them with air power, but it's a secondary tool, not a primary tool."

The Bush team is preparing the US for a long and painful campaign. For now, the American public opinion is firmly behind military action. But what is not clear is just how long and how painful this "new kind" of war will be.