"The American people must understand that we�ve got a long way to go in order to achieve our objective in this theater," Mr. Bush told reporters during a Rose Garden greeting for two aid workers rescued recently from Afghanistan. "But we�re patient, we�re resolved, and we will stay the course until we achieve our objective."

While the administration�s military tactics�including some details concerning the landing at Final Call press time of members of the 15th and 26th Marine Expeditionary Units with as many as 1,500 troops and assault aircraft and tanks along with supply and support equipment�have been shared, the president is not sharing precise goals beyond Afghanistan.

Marines deployed on the ground launched their first attack Nov. 26, just hours after seizing an air base near the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. Helicopter gun ships attacked an unidentified armored column, Pentagon officials said.

"To move to insert a large number of troops now, one of the outcomes of that is the United States will be able to have more leverage at the negotiating table when a government is set up," said Charles Knight, co-director of the Massachusetts-based Project on Defense Alternatives. The U.S. "will be able to strongly urge that the Pashtun tribal interests are respected in that process. This is really at the crux of the future and stability in Afghanistan: how these tribal interests are balanced," he added.

The U.S. made a "big error" by not dropping paratroopers into Kabul when the Northern Alliance took over the outskirts of the city, Mr. Knight argues. "The Northern Alliance was able to take control of a much greater portion of Afghanistan than the United States ever expected or intended," he said. "They should have made sure the city was secured by Americans not the Northern Alliance troops who have a history of atrocities."

The real tragedy is war itself, not any specific side of soldiers, counters Brian Cross, of the Oakland, Calif, office of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors. "It is a killing machine and people generally don�t want to be a part of it," he said. Usually his group fields calls from an estimated 15,000 people a year�some trying not to go into the service, most looking for a way out, said Mr. Cross. However, since the Sept. 11 attacks, that number has skyrocketed and the Central Committee has scrambled to train hundreds of volunteers nationally to handle phones, which are ringing off the hook, he said.

"Dissonance" between dreams offered by recruiters and the reality of military life are one reason for the high volume of calls from soldiers, Mr. Cross said.

Hopes for a stable job and an education are gradually eroded by the racism, sexism, abuse and harassment they find, he said. Referring to a 1999 survey conducted by the Veterans Association, 90 percent of women reported sexual harassment or abuse while in the military, with one third saying they had been raped, Mr. Cross explained.

Militarily speaking, he maintains that a land war, especially in Asia won�t work. "We have been there and done that. This is not the way to deal with that. It just creates worse situations," he warned.

According to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the deployment of ground troops by the U.S. Central Command will establish a base of operations to keep a closer watch on the movements of, and to help pressure Taliban forces.

The Marines will be used to help hunt down Taliban, Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda forces, Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon. "They are not an occupying force," he said.

The fate of captured Taliban fighters will be decided "case by case," according to one U.S. official, with most of them to be disarmed and then allowed to go home.

But U.S. forces may not even want to capture fugitive Osama bin Laden alive because there may not be enough evidence to convict him in a court of law, according to one prominent U.S. intellectual. "If captured alive it will be difficult for America to try Osama in a court of law and that is why it considers it better to kill him," MIT Professor Noam Chomsky said in Lahore, Pakistan Nov. 25, according to the newspaper Dawn. Dr. Chomsky toured the region, also stopping in New Delhi, India.

The long-term U.S. strategy urged by Mr. Bush�s conservative critics is for him to settle an old feud with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who has remained in power for 10 years since Mr. Bush�s father led an American coalition to drive Iraq�s troops out of neighboring Kuwait.

"Saddam Hussein agreed to allow inspectors in his country. And in order to prove to the world he�s not developing weapons of mass destruction, he ought to let the inspectors back in," Mr. Bush warned in the Rose Garden ceremony. And if he does not do that, "he�ll find out" what happens next.

"Afghanistan is still just the beginning. If anybody harbors a terrorist, they�re a terrorist. If they fund a terrorist, they�re a terrorist. If they house terrorists, they�re terrorists. I mean, I can�t make it any more clearly to other nations around the world. If they develop weapons of mass destruction that will be used to terrorize nations, they will be held accountable," Mr. Bush continued.

This more hawkish policy, fueled by Mr. Bush�s veiled warnings about carrying the campaign into Iraq�even if it means a break-up of the broad coalition, including many Islamic governments that support bringing those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks to justice�is what conservatives want.

A "liberal, imperial role," is what William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, advocates. Mr. Kristol was a speech writer for then-Vice President Dan Quayle in the elder Bush administration. Other conservatives see the conflict via the prism of an apocalyptic-type of fight, pitting East vs. West, or Islam vs. Christianity.

Thus far observers credit Mr. Bush with following a more moderate course.

Voices of dissent urge end to war

Virtually ignored by the media, many are urging caution and oppose military action. "The people of the United States should not be sucked into this frenzy," said Damu Smith, of Black Voices for Peace, a panel participant at a recent forum from Washington, D.C., titled, "America On Trial: Will the Real America Please Stand Up!" sponsored by the Peace and Justice Foundation.

The Bush administration is composed of people who wanted to go to war and the perfect opportunity came with the Sept. 11 incident, that lulled the U.S. to sleep, he said.

Mr. Smith said America�s hand in covert and overt destabilizations of governments around the world�including siding with the South Africa apartheid regimes, backing despots, heavy-handed support of Israel in the Palestinian land occupation crisis, domestic terror waged on Blacks by white extremists and the recent walk out on the World Conference Against Racism have created a negative backlash.

"Clearly, as we go forward there is a disconnect between what the government is proposing and how it�s articulating those proposals and the cultures into which this message is being sent," Dr. Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwitch, executive director of the Black Leadership Forum told The Final Call.

"That is a clear and accurate barometer of how the U.S. really feels about issues of concern to not just African Americans but to all people of color in this country," she said. America, she said, does not consider Black public opinion, nor see its leadership as important.

The International Action Center, a New York-based peace group, questioned why the U.S. immediately targeted Afghanistan and rejected a Taliban offer to negotiate with proof of the culpability of Osama bin Laden in the Sept. 11 attacks. "The Bush administration responded that they wouldn�t negotiate and they refused to provide the evidence. Was it really because the U.S. wanted to combat terrorism? Or is it because the U.S. made a calculated decision to use the terrible Sept. 11 attacks as justification for a Pentagon move to expand its domination in the Middle East and South/Central Asia?" the group asked.

The vast interests of U.S. oil, banking and military corporations see South and Central Asia as the next strategic region for oil and natural gas exploitation, said the International Action Center.

"The Caspian Region�made up of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan�has a potential value in oil and natural gas of more than $5 trillion. These former Soviet states share a border with Afghanistan, and are precisely the countries the U.S. military has now established bases and troops. The U.S. militarization of the region began before Sept. 11; now it is going full-scale," the group said.

A Unocal Oil Corp. spokesperson testified before the House Committee on International Relations, February 12, 1998, saying "the Caspian region contains tremendous untapped hydrocarbon reserves, proven natural gas reserves equal more than 236 trillion cubic feet. (Oil reserves) estimates are as high as 200 billion barrels," according to the International Action Center.

It also cites a 1998 Time magazine article which says "a secret CIA task force was set up to monitor the region�s politics and gauge its wealth, with covert CIA officers, some well-trained petroleum engineers had traveled through southern Russia and the Caspian region to sniff out potential oil reserves," and reports that U.S. oil and gas firms have directors involved in the Caspian Region.

These executives are ex-military and political leaders, including former Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton advisers such as Gen. Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski, former White House Chief of Staff John N. Sununu, former Defense Secretary Richard Cheney, Secretary of State James Baker, and former Clinton treasury secretary Lloyd Bentsen, the International Action Center said, citing a 1997 Washington Post article.