India's bin laden
October 1 in Srinagar was not as dramatic as September 11 in the US. But the attack on the J&K Assembly emphasises the reality that India continues to be a permanent victim of jehad, that the author of the blast is the bin Laden of Kandahar vintage.

Reclaiming The Faith
Despite Pakistan's extremist image, the country is home to a wide cross-section of people holding moderate views on religion. After the terrorist attacks on the US, it is this non-confrontationist lobby that is waging a coup against the militant and vocal religious extremists.

Ready To Strike
The US strategy to strike the Taliban includes making use of the Northern Alliance, favoured by Russia and Iran and distrusted by Pakistan. In its military pact with the front, the US should keep in mind the future power equations in Afghanistan.

COVER STORY: TERRORISM

Weeks after the attack, Americans are confused about what their country will do to tackle Osama bin Laden

	MASKED FEAR: A customer tries on the last gas mask at a military store

In post-September 11 America, trauma is a national affliction, confusion a national pastime. Shaken Americans are buying gas masks and antibiotics. Admission to Arab language courses has increased as students seek to learn the language of "the enemy". Such "homeland defence"-the current buzzphrase-is the stuff of tangible action. Understanding the world and a complexity described eloquently by a New Yorker as "Pakistan, Uzbekistan and all those other stans" is another thing.

In a media-driven society, the TV anchor is supposed to have all the answers. But today even he seems flummoxed. The cluelessness becomes obvious when "specialists" hint that soldiers might prepare for Afghanistan's terrain with manoeuvres in arid Arizona. The redoubtable William Safire in all seriousness wrote in The New York Times of mobilising "Muslim clergy-who know their Koran and have special credibility ... to work with our Islamic allies". This army would invade Taliban lands, aided by an "aggressive Radio Free Afghanistan".

The same day, Washington said it would use Voice of America and Pakistani radio stations to broadcast propaganda telling the Afghans that bin Laden was not a good Muslim, obviously inspired by Radio Free Liberty, once used against the Soviet Bloc. America hasn't had a conflict since the Cold War and it shows.

Like the Indian Government during the Kandahar hijack of 1999, the US spent days waiting for the "moderates in the Taliban"-a commodity as rare as a Marxist in the Republican Party-to defect. General Musharraf was supposed to win them over. American reporters went around Karachi and Lahore and came to the conclusion that most Pakistanis were against the Taliban and would back American intervention. But within a week, it became apparent that nobody other than imaginative reporters was serious about invading Afghanistan using US soldiers based in Pakistan. Islamabad was grudgingly recognised as unreliable. So it was time to focus on Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, the likely launching pads. Two facts stood out. One, Secretary of State Colin Powell denounced the Srinagar bombing by a Pakistan-based group. Two, that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfield's crucial Asian trip didn't include Pakistan.

The main factor fuelling America's anxiety is the intellectual illiteracy that keeps even foreign affairs specialists from knowing that Iranians are not Arabs and can be allies. Then there's the media. Used to "confidential briefings" during the Clinton years, it gets no information from the Bush regime, manned by Cold War veterans. So a whole nation is busy second guessing. Americans, from President George W. Bush downwards, are asking the world to choose their enemies. Before that, America would do well to choose its friends.

—Ashok Malik in New York

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