War report

摘要

The strangeness of the war in afghanistan is captured in a photo that Defense Secretary Donald Rums feld showed reporters in November. A.U.S. Special Forces commando, equipped with a rifle and probably GPS navi gation gear, a satellite phone, and a laser target designator, rides on horseback next to Northern Alliance insurgents in traditional dress. Here is the war in a nutshell, advanced fighting technology sup porting ancient, hardscrabble Afghan ways of waging combat. Despite the odd bit of horsepower, for U.S. forces phase 1 was almost all about air power, as skeptics were proven wrong about the degree of Taliban entrenchment. Unmanned drones, some-times carrying missiles, patrolled the skies, supplementing fighter and cruise missile strikes while providing targeting and surveil- lance information. AC-130 gunships with an array of long-range machine guns offered added support for troops on the ground. And B-52s-old warhorses now equipped with sophisticated targeting sensors-used carpet-bombing tactics reminiscent of World War Ⅱ. Result: For U.S. fighters, a remarkably low-fatality first phase.